


The Skies Called Us

by Esherymack



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Character Death, Dragon Riders AU, F/M, Faithshipping - Freeform, I'm terrible at writing romance, Lots of time cuts, OOCness, Sword related violence, This moves really fast I'm sorry, but i gave it a shot, it grew into 45 pages and counting, lol, so i split it up into oneshot chapters and made a new series, this is an AU that was only supposed to be a oneshot in Multiverse Theory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 09:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15140420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esherymack/pseuds/Esherymack
Summary: Fifty years ago, the Cataclysm ravaged the Empire of the Crimson Dragon, and scattered the few remaining Riders to the far corners of the world.Yusei Fudo, alone for years save the company of his dragon, Najima, is dragged back into the mystery surrounding the event when he meets a mysterious, injured girl and her own dragon.He takes her under his wing as an apprentice, unintentionally setting into motion the redemption of the Earthbound God once and for all.A series of connected oneshots, highlighting their path on this journey through the past.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really serious when I say this moves *fast.* Like, I didn't really intend it that way, but it's turning out that way. 
> 
> I'm also serious when I say I'm terrible at writing romance that isn't absolutely fluffy sap. It's so sappy. So, so, sappy. 
> 
> This was meant to be a 2-3 page oneshot and it completely blew up. Let me know if it doesn't make any sense. I'm trying to make it make sense.

Yusei adjusts the leather strap spanning his chest with one hand as he leans to the side, looking beyond Najima’s head. His other hand fists in the harness around Najima’s great chest.

 

“That’s not what I think it is, is it?” he asks aloud, and the dragon beneath him rumbles.

 

“ _Unfortunately,”_ he growls, and Yusei huffs tiredly.

 

“Well, we’ve not got all day. Let’s take care of this before it becomes a problem.”

 

Najima lets out an ear-piercing shriek as he twists midair, and Yusei scrambles to secure his loose hand before he completely flies off of the dragon’s back. Najima’s sudden descent slows as he re-orients and snaps his wings out. His talons extend, glittering in the setting sun.

 

The maneuver is so fast that the other dragon has no time to protect itself. Najima’s talons rip into its shoulders, and a surprised roar breaks off in a bellow of crimson fire. Yusei grunts as flames lick close, closer, _too close, too close_ , and winces as he smells burning hair, and at the sting of the flames. Najima’s foreleg latches onto the other dragon’s head, and forces it away enough that Yusei is out of harm’s way.

 

The other dragon is falling now, unable to maintain its own weight as well as an entire other dragon on its back. Yusei can smell the iron and copper and brimstone of its blood, running in thick streams through jagged scales, beneath the hooked talons embedded in its flesh.

 

Najima sinks his fangs into the other dragon’s spine. The beast howls, crazed by pain and fear. Yusei frees his legs and hands from Najima’s harness, and slips lithely from his place between the great silver dragon’s shoulders onto the bleeding ones below him. Here, Najima’s talons are nearly as big as he is, lined with thick barbs that make it impossible for the other dragon to free itself.

 

Yusei grabs flasks from his satchel and sets to filling them from the wounds, holding onto a spine ridge with one hand to avoid being thrown off.

 

Archfiend Blood is a rare commodity, and makes good money. Alchemists and kings alike treasure it for its healing properties, and Yusei is one of very, very few who is able to gather it.

 

The value of their blood aside, Archfiends are generally considered dangerous nuisances. Merely fifty years prior, they were held in honor as powerful companions to dragon riders, but after the Cataclysm, those that survived descended into wild, untamed insanity. After the extermination, they are far and few between.

 

Yusei climbs back up Najima’s leg and secures himself back into the harness. He pounds a fist on Najima’s shoulder. “Let’s go!” he yells, and the dragon growls and digs his fangs deeper still, breaking the other’s neck. He drops the corpse and soars into the sky once again, and Yusei grits his teeth as it grows frigid.

 

He watches the black Archfiend corpse crash into the oaks and maples, and unbidden, an image swims to his memory. He remembers Jack Atlas and his great crimson Archfiend. They had been friends, soaring through the skies. The man had been stern, almost cruel at times, but he was a good rider and a better warrior. He was unfalteringly loyal. He was brave.

 

He, like all the other Archfiend riders, had to be dealt with. Yusei still vividly remembers the horrible moments of clarity Jack had before he’d died.

 

Yusei is so lost in his thoughts that he doesn’t acknowledge Najima’s prodding until the dragon tries for the fifth time.

 

He shakes himself, pushing the memories back into his mind. He is about to ask him what he wants, when he freezes.

 

He tries to speak, and fails. Najima speaks for him.

 

“ _A Black Rose.”_

 

Before the Cataclysm, there were five legions of dragon riders. The Star Legion was at the forefront - knights of silver and sapphire, who rode the great and nimble Stardust Dragons. They were the fastest fliers, the boldest warriors, the most towering beasts, the most vicious animals. Their first duty was to the Emperor, and they were his first legion on any battlefield.

 

Yusei is the last, as far as he knows, in this hemisphere.

 

Hell Legion was next. These were the Archfiends, and their respective riders. There had never been a group of prouder warriors, and all of them were loyal and true to their causes. They always followed the Star Legion without fail, ravaging enemy forces with great gouts of flame. Yusei knows for a fact that there are no Archfiend riders left. All that remains is the ruins of their fortresses, and the mad beasts that were their companions. The Cataclysm had taken care of that.

 

The Blackwing Legion were the messengers of the Emperor - fast, stealthy, and they practically lived in the skies. While the official legion has disbanded, Yusei knows that his old friend Crow still roams the skies with the remnants, nomadic traders and bearers of information.

 

The Mercy Legion was home to great healers, alchemists, and scientists. They traveled the world similar to the Blackwing Legion, but instead of bringing messages to far-off rulers and tribes, they sought knowledge for the Emperor’s libraries and brought medicine to his suffering people. Yusei does not know if any remain, but Crow once told him that he had seen one of the great jewel-toned dragons that was signature of these people.

 

But the Rose Legion was last. Yusei had never had a friend in this group. They were the ones who carried out the dirty work of the Emperor. They worked from the shadows. They allied with Black Rose Dragons, beasts that rivaled Stardust Dragons in size, but looked all the more immense due to the great crimson scales that gave them their name. The great thorned beasts paired with terrifying psychic prowess struck cold fear into his heart.

 

This particular beast is scrutinizing him with narrowed crimson eyes. Yusei could hear his heartbeat, loud as the _thump-thump-thump_ of dragon wings on air. He is unable to discern if there is a rider on the dragon.

 

The Black Roses may not have be his friends, but they are not enemies like the Archfiends. His hand presses into the dip between Najima’s shoulders. He can feel the territorial growl in his bones.

 

Yusei holds up one arm, his hand splayed in the traditional hail. There is no reply, not immediately, but suddenly he winces as great pressure exerts itself on his mind. It is gripping fear, it is demanding, it is a voice in his head screaming, “ _LAND.”_

 

He thinks it best not to argue. Fortunately, he doesn’t need to tell Najima twice. Najima dives for a clearing in the trees, and Yusei can hear the roar of the Black Rose behind him, following.

 

Najima’s talons rake paths in the soil as he lands, and Yusei dares not move from his perch. The Black Rose lands gracefully, her head twenty feet away. It is close enough that she could unleash her poison on both of them and kill them easily. But she would not demand they land for that.

 

Sudden movement makes Najima flinch and toss Yusei about gracelessly as he reaches for a harness strap, a spine, _anything_. The Black Rose freezes, but not long - she reaches out again, her neck snaking over Najima’s shoulders, and Yusei realizes all too late she is reaching for _him_.

 

He knows better than to fight a dragon’s will, but he really has no idea if this dragon is keen on human flesh or not. The almost gentle approach to grabbing him is not one of hunger, and he has to fight the urge to hold on for dear life as she grabs his collar and yanks him until his legs come free of the harness and she can deposit him on the ground in front of her.

 

Master Yanagi’s advice comes swimming into his mind, something he has not considered for almost two hundred years. _Never look a dragon you are not bonded with in the eye_ , he’d lectured.

 

Yusei holds his hands out flat and stares intently at the ground. He is afraid. He figures any beast that can coerce a Stardust Dragon to land and then pluck his rider from his back is a beast to fear.

 

The pressure in his mind returns. He recognizes it this time as the feeling he got when he had first bonded with Najima, the feeling of a new mind in his own. He feels her sift through memories and knock on walls.

 

A voice, soft and warm like a mother’s, whispers through the immense presence. “ _Aritafae. My name is Aritafae_.”

 

Yusei is confused. She is _introducing herself_.

 

“I,” he starts, then stops, and looks back at Najima. The dragon has straightened and is staring levelly at the Black Rose- Aritafae. It is a challenging stare. He chances a look himself, and finds her arched over his head, looking straight at him.

 

“I am called Yusei Fudo. This is Najima. We are of the Star Legion.”

 

“ _Ah, but the Star Legion is no more. You know this._ ”

 

“Well… yes. But it does not change who I am. It was the only life I had known for many decades.”

 

“ _You did not seek a new beginning? Why hold the past?”_

 

“Is this a test?”

 

Aritafae growls. He takes that as a yes.

 

“The past is all I know. I still grieve for all that was lost. I barely have a life now - hunting, occasionally killing an Archfiend.”

 

She grunts. “ _It will have to do. Do you know medicine? Herbs?_ ”

 

“I… know how to survive. I am no cleric.”

 

“ _The clerics are not here. It will have to do._ ”

 

His brow furrows in confusion, but she grabs him by the collar once more, and he yelps. Aritafae twists her neck and places him between her shoulder blades, where he would sit on Najima. His hands find a dragon rider’s harness between her huge red scales, and he grips it in surprise. She does not give either of them any warning, though, and takes off to the sky.

 

Were he not of the Star Legion, he would have been more shocked. She flies elegantly, but not nearly as fast as Najima is capable of. He can feel the immense muscles moving more slowly, more fluidly than they ever did in Najima’s shoulders.

 

Her rhythm is different, as well. Whereas he has to bend and twist his body with Najima fairly often, he does not here. She is bulkier, not nearly as lithe, and does not take daring corkscrew turns and dives midair like he is used to.

 

“ _Yusei!_ ”

 

He looks to the left to see Najima glaring at Aritafae. She answers in his stead.

 

“ _Do not worry, silver one. I won’t break him._ ”

 

He hears Najima roar in frustration. “ _But he is_ mine _, Black Rose._ ”

 

The dragons begin to bicker, but Najima doesn’t dare attack her while Yusei is on her back. He loses himself in watching the forest fade into rocks and swoop upward into a great cliff.

 

The flight is short-lived. Aritafae swoops down and lands on an outcrop before she climbs upwards, somehow fitting her bulky form into a cavern on the wall.

 

Najima clambers in behind them as Yusei is picking his way through Aritafae’s shield-sized scales. He almost thinks he hears a sigh of amusement before he is picked up once again and deposited on his feet. He rubs his collar between his hands and gave her his best irritated look. “If you put tooth-holes in my coat, you’re getting me a new one.”

 

Aritafae huffs, but then turns her head so that one great crimson eye is level with his own. He immediately feels uncomfortable about the dragon initiating the eye contact.

 

“Why did you bring us here,” he asks slowly.

 

“ _She needs help,_ ” is the only reply he gets, and she shifts nervously. Due to the low height of the cavern, she has to awkwardly shuffle her wings and tail around until she manages to scoot very close to Najima, who growls softly as she approaches. Yusei finds himself being shoved bodily deeper into the caverns.

 

Were he a normal man, he’d have not been able to see the interior of the cavern. But Yusei’s eyes are enhanced, and his gaze snaps to the pale figure wrapped in cloaks against the far wall. He nears her slowly. She does not acknowledge his presence.

 

He stops in his approach and looks back at Aritafae, eyes questioning. He does not even have to ask.

 

“ _She is mine,”_ Aritafae says. Her voice is very soft again.

 

Yusei does not ask any more questions for now. He draws nearer to the woman and shifts the cloaks out of the way. She is wearing riding gear, black leather armor over a crisp white cotton shirt.

 

At least, the shirt had been white. Presently it is smeared with dried blood. He does not see any fresh, which is hopeful.

 

Her skin is warm to the touch. Too warm. He makes a mental note that she is fevered as he picks at the tears in the shirt.

 

Dragon riders heal faster than other beings. If she was hurt at one point, she no longer obviously is.

 

“Aritafae,” he asks aloud. He hears the dry rasp of scales on stones. “What happened? Why am I here?”

 

“ _She will not wake.”_

 

Yusei resists rolling his eyes at the obtuse speech of dragons as he shifts her from her side to her back. Her clenched fist falls to the floor and something clatters across the stone floor.

 

He reaches for it and picks it up. Rolls it between his fingers as he examines it.

 

“An arrow?”

 

A grumble from behind him that he knows to be an affirmative.

 

“It’s missing the head.”

 

Another grumble.

 

Yusei realizes what has happened here, and he tugs the woman’s shirt out of the waist of her trousers and over her ribs. His fingers find a puckered scar, and further examination reveals deep purple bruises and reddish streaks of infection.

 

“Stupid, pulling that out like you did,” Yusei grumbles. Her advanced healing had healed the wound, but the arrow’s head remained embedded in her side. Judging from her lack of consciousness, it could be poisoned.

 

_Or it could be obsidian steel,_ Master Yanagi’s voice comes unbidden once again. _Obsidian steel is dangerous to dragon riders and dragons alike. It corrupts their blood and body much like common poisons._

 

Yusei does not know who would have obsidian steel arrowheads, and he doesn’t exactly want to find out. He hopes fervently that it is what caused the issue, though – it is far easier to deal with obsidian steel than it is poison. He does not want to have to put another mad dragon down, much less a Black Rose, if this woman dies.

 

He returns to the dragons. “I’m going to have to cut the arrowhead out,” he says to Aritafae. She growls a little, hackles raised.

 

“ _Is there no other way?”_

 

He gives her his best pitying look. “I’m sorry,” he says sincerely. He knows she does not want him near her rider with sharp blades, but there is not another option. “She’ll die if I don’t remove it.”

 

Aritafae huffs and shuffles as close to the woman as she can. Yusei can feel her hot breath brushing the nape of his neck.

 

He tries to be gentle as possible. It is, however, hard to be gentle whilst cutting a hole into someone. The arrowhead is not buried deep, though, and has not touched anything important, and he holds it up to the light to find, to his simultaneous horror and relief, that it is in fact obsidian steel. Three thick barbs jut from either side. A bit of splintered wood clings to the end.

 

He stitches the wound and winds bandages around the woman’s torso, a frown engraved deep in his features. Aritafae’s snout hits him roughly on the shoulder.

 

“ _Will she be okay?”_

 

“We’ll see. It’s getting late, and it’s cold up here. We should make a fire.”  


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aki wakes up.

Yusei certainly has not expected to spend his evening in the company of an unconscious rider and her dragon. It has been many years since he last saw Crow and the other nomads, and he feels he is out of practice

 

Admittedly, there isn’t much to talk about.

 

The dragons, thankfully, are not very interested in speaking with him. Yusei is lost in thought when the woman rouses. She goes from slumber to alert very quickly, and the sudden movement draws Yusei’s attention.

 

“You’re awake.”

 

“Who are you?” she says irritably.

 

“Yusei Fudo. Aritafae kidnapped me. How are you feeling?”

 

She ignores his question and looked at the dragon. “Really? You had to?”

 

“ _It is not as if I had a huge choice in the matter either, Aki._ ” The dragon says no more, but drops her head into the woman – Aki’s – lap. She sighs and scrubs a hand over the rough scales there.

 

“Like I know what that means,” Aki mutters, before remembering herself. “Ah – uh, I am Aki Izayoi,” she says to Yusei. “And I suppose you’ve already met Arit.”

 

Yusei jots that down for later. _She can’t understand dragon tongue._ He tips his head to his own companion. “That is Najima.”

 

At the sound of his name, Najima looks up and bobs his head in some sort of greeting bow.

 

Aki’s hand finds her side, and she fingers the bandages, wincing. “You got it out?”

 

Yusei nods.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“It is no problem. Aritafae did not give me much of a choice, anyways.”

 

“You seriously kidnapped him?” she says, directed to the Black Rose Dragon. She huffs and refuses to reply. Aki rolls her eyes. “I apologize for her.”

 

Yusei hums noncommittally.

 

“So… Star Legion?”

 

“Rose Legion?”

 

She blushes, high in her cheekbones. “About that.”

 

“I have no issue with you. It has been fifty years, after all.”

 

Aki blushes further and mumbles something under her breath.

 

“What was that?”

 

“I was never… actually in the legion. My mother was. She trained me my whole life, but she’s gone now. I’ve been with Aritafae for about thirty years.”

 

Yusei blinks. “I wasn’t aware dragons could imprint on others.”

 

“Apparently I’m a special case. Arit was there. But I wasn’t even born yet.”

 

Yusei steeples his fingers. “You got your gear from your mother, then?”

 

“Yes. After she died.”

 

“How did she die? It certainly wouldn’t have been of old age.”

 

Aki swallows, and Yusei is about to say never mind, but she reaches for the obsidian steel arrowhead. She picks it up hesitantly in her gloved hands. “The same man that hit me with this killed her. This would be the second time Arit’s saved me from death at his hands.” She pauses. “I thought I was ready. I thought I could handle him, and it turns out I couldn’t.” Her golden eyes flick to his. “How long have you and Najima been together?”

 

“I was paired with him when I was six. That’d make it a bit over two hundred years. I think I’ve lost track.”

 

“You hardly look older than I am, though.”

 

“Dragon riders age very, very slowly. You should know that.”

 

“...I didn’t.”

 

He scrutinizes her. “How much _do_ you know?”

 

She shrugs, blushing once again. “I know how to use my mind. I know how to cast a few rider spells, and I know how to use a sword, and how to ride a dragon. But that’s really about it.”

 

Yusei lets out a guffaw, despite himself. “I’m sorry for laughing,” he says, “but that is absurdly little.”

 

She nods, looking down. “I don’t really have anyone to teach me these things.”

 

Najima grumbles, and says to Yusei, “ _Why not take her on? As an apprentice of sorts?’_

 

Yusei jumps to his feet and paces towards the dragons. “No, Najima. No. I can’t really--”

 

Aritafae steps in. “ _You said yourself, Fudo, that you do nothing but hunt and survive these days. It wouldn’t hurt._ ”

 

Yusei bites his tongue. He had said that, hadn’t he. He looks at Aki. She is sitting behind the fire, eyes wide, watching him speak to the dragons. He remembers that she is not following their conversation. He switches to dragon-tongue instead of translating, so she doesn’t know they are talking about her.

 

“ _I have never taken on an apprentice. I don’t even think I remember Master Yanagi’s teachings. That was two hundred years ago, Najima.”_

 

“ _So consider it a good refresher for yourself, too. Look at her. The hatchling doesn’t even know we’re talking about her.”_ Najima pauses. “ _Does she know how to speak to you?”_ he says, addressing Aritafae.

 

“ _She knows very little. Setsuko did not have time to teach her our language. Fudo, I am old, and am not even capable of speaking your shared language to her. I cannot help her other than keeping her safe. If you helped her – trained her – I would be in your debt. It would be a great honour.”_

 

Yusei gnaws on his cheek. Then he sighs.

 

“Aki,” he says, turning to her. “Would you like to learn how to be a true dragon rider?”

 

She blinks at him, and seems to be processing the question. He waits.

 

“I… you’d teach me? What you know?”

 

Yusei nods. “I would.”

 

Slowly, Aki gets to her feet and limps over in front of him. Cautious of her sore side, she clasps her hands together and dips into a formal bow.

 

“I would be honoured to be your apprentice, Yusei.”

 

He doesn’t know exactly how to respond, so he holds out his hand. She blinks at it, surprised. “Just so you know,” he says, “We’re doing things the Star Legion way.”

 

She hesitantly takes his hand. “Of course,” she says, her eyes flicking to Najima. “It wouldn’t suit to be any other way.”

 

He squeezes gently and lets go. “It’s settled then. Tomorrow.”

 

“Tomorrow.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They leave the cavern.

Yusei rises with the sun, a habit ingrained so deeply in his system that to do otherwise would be impossible even in his most exhausted state.

 

His first order of business, he supposes, would be to get Aki on the same schedule. He nudges her with his boot and she swats at his leg. He tries again.

 

“What,” she grumbles, voice thick with sleep.

 

“Lesson number one. Dragon riders rise with the sun.”

 

She pushes herself upright and stretches, her spine releasing a series of pops. “Question number one,” she asks, “Do dragon riders ever sleep on beds?”

 

“On rare occasions,” Yusei supplies. “How long have you two been in this cave?”

 

“Too long,” Aki sighs in reply. She looks down at her torn and dirty shirt somewhat dejectedly. “I, uh… Could you perhaps turn around a bit? I need to fix this.”

 

Despite his interest in what she is about to do – hearth spells have never been his strength – he does as she requests and turns his back to her. She takes no longer than a minute, a quickly muttered spell passing through the air. Yusei is surprised that despite her lack of experience, the spell is controlled and ends quickly.

 

“You have excellent spell control,” he says to the clouds, and she hums.

 

“My mother was very intent on at least getting me to master psychic ability and spell-work. She started me on hearth spells when I was very young. I’m capable of far more.”

 

Yusei does not doubt her. “I uh, never really knew anyone in Rose Legion. I’m not sure your mother and I would have gotten along, had we known one another. They had… different ethics than we did in Star Legion.”

 

“You can turn around now. My mother didn’t hide her past from me. I know what she – and Arit – got themselves into.”

 

Yusei turns to see her fastening her belt back in place. There are three sheathes hanging off of it – a long one for a sword on her left hip, and two smaller ones for daggers. All three were empty. He gestures to them. “You mentioned you know your way around a sword, but…?”

 

He lets the question hang in the air as she fingers the sturdy leather. “I lost them.”

 

Of course.

 

“Well,” Yusei begins, climbing up onto Najima’s back, “I think I have a spare, but it’s a different style than one that’d go in that sheathe.”

 

“How much different could it be?” Aki asks. Instead of answering her, Yusei holds his spare sword aloft.

 

“Well, for starters, it’s a two-handed weapon instead of a single-handed weapon like all of yours.” He drops the bundled steel down to her and slides off of Najima’s shoulder, picking up his usual blade from where it rests between the dragon’s feet.

 

“Why have you got two?”

 

“Force of habit,” Yusei replies. “All of the legions had different styles of fighting, different weapons in their standard gear. You were Rose Legion – they all had silver short swords and daggers. I’m assuming that’s what you lost?”

 

“No… my blades were all steel. I don’t know where my mother kept her legion blades.”

 

Yusei hums. “The weight of that will probably feel off, then. Not only is it larger, but it’s made of silver.”

 

Aki nods and swallows a bit nervously. “We’re getting right into swordplay, then?”

 

“Yup. I’ll focus more on teaching you the language at night, before we rest.”

 

He has to spend about ten minutes showing her how to situate the blade and the straps around her chest. In her case, one rests over her collarbones while the other wraps around her diaphragm. “Try not to situate it so that it uh, goes between your… yeah.”

 

Aki laughs at his obvious discomfort and affirms that she understands.

 

He draws his blade from his back, and she mirrors the movement. She finds herself digging the tip of the sword into the gravel of the cavern floor almost immediately.

 

“This is _heavy,_ ” she gasps. Yusei laughs.

 

“Try holding it with two hands,” he suggests. “You won’t get very far holding a greatsword like that with one hand.”

 

She hefts it, with some effort, and tries to mirror his pose. He leans his sword against the wall and fidgets her about like a mannequin, adjusting her footing and her hands on the leather grip.

 

“I want you to get used to standing like this. This is your neutral position – you return to this position when you’re not doing anything. Never draw your sword unless you have intent to use it.”

 

She gives him a look that gives him the impression that she’s heard that before, and he figures that’s a standard teaching. However, she does not tell him otherwise and lets him continue to fidget with her form until he is satisfied.

 

“You can remember this position?” he asks, and she nods. Her shoulders are already starting to burn from holding the position still for so long.

 

He makes her stand there for a solid thirty minutes as he lectures about various sword forms and the primary differences in styles, trying to channel as much as he knew about Rose Legion warriors into his speech. As he draws to a conclusion, Arit and Najima are rumbling with barely-contained laughter, at both his style of teaching and Aki’s obvious struggle to maintain the position he has put her in.

 

“Hey, I’m only going with how I was taught,” he snaps irritably at the dragons, with a muttered “ _overgrown lizards_ ” thrown in. “Anyways,” he says to Aki, picking up his sword again and giving it a short swing as he shakes his arm out, “I’ll show you a few basics of fighting with a two handed sword. You’ll come to find that once you learn a fighting style, it’s hard to lose it, so I’ll try not to make you change too much from what you already know. Try to adapt things. In a real fight, it’s not scripted moves – you don’t know your enemy.”

 

A ki nods as he lectures and leads her through  some standard steps. He is very obviously struggling with holding himself back, though, as his blade comes uncomfortably close to her hands or head a few times. She manages hasty blocks as he catches himself, though, and he expresses apologies every time it happens.

 

Finally, he steps away and slides his sword back into its sheathe. “I think that’ll be enough today. I don’t want you to get too exhausted with that.”

 

With great relief, Aki carefully places the sword she holds back into its own sheathe and lets her arms fall limply at her sides. “My arms feel like raw pastry dough.”

 

Yusei arches an eyebrow with more elegance than she thinks he deserves. “It’ll get better with time.”

 

Najima flexes his wings, almost smacking  Yusei in the head. “ _Little one,_ ” he rumbles, using an old endearment that makes Yusei blush despite Aki not understanding the words, “ _We have been in this cave for nearly a full day. You and the girl should take a flight._ _I would rather like to find a waypoint._ ”

Yusei blinks at Najima as if it were a ridiculous suggestion. “Uh,” he says, and then remembers to address Aki on the matter. “He’s suggesting we take a flight.  To somewhere else. ”

 

Aki gives Aritafae a pitiful look but concedes, slipping nimbly up her foreleg and into the harness that Yusei had previously struggled to escape. Yusei himself follows suit on Najima, glad to be back on a familiar set of shoulders.

 

“I’ve heard that Star Legion was the fastest of them all,” Aki calls over from Arit’s back. Yusei smirks devilishly. “Is that true?”

 

“You wanna find out?”

 

Aki blinks owlishly at him, and Arit even looks a bit interested. “ _I’ve not seen a Stardust Dragon truly fly since the Cataclysm_ ,” she says, and Yusei takes that as all the permission he and Najima need to just let go. Najima slinks over to the cliff face, his talons scraping against the stone, and Yusei adjusts his grip on the harness, wrapping a coil of leather around each forearm. 

 

Very much without warning –  at least to Aki’s view – Najima f al l s into the void that  i s the sky, releasing a screech of excitement. Arit  lowers her neck, watching the silver dragon twist twice before righting himself. 

 

Arit launches herself off the cliff face after the other dragon, but she is not nearly as fast or nimble. Yusei and Najima are miles ahead already, made minuscule by their terrifying speed. Najima suddenly banks right and veers back towards Arit. It takes them very little time – less than a minute – to be at her position.

 

Aki is agape. She knows that yelling over to Yusei will be pointless – the wind will just snatch her words away – and she figures that will be a question she asks him later, how dragon riders communicate while in flight.

 

Najima slows down considerably to fly next to Arit, the glittering tips of his great wings nearly brushing Arit’s wingtips. She roars something over the wind that the other dragon can clearly understand, as he responds in kind.

 

Yusei lets Najima set his own pace, clearly in no rush. The dragon is steadfast, heading north from the cavern that Aki has been living in for several weeks now. As Najima slows, Yusei relaxes, releasing his wrists from the harness and stretching.

 

The tall oaks and maples slowly give way into pines below, and as Aki just starts to contemplate how cold it is at this height and this far north, a fragile warmth falls over her. She looks over at Yusei, who has a hand extended in her direction. He doesn’t try to say anything, but she gives him a smile and a wave of gratitude for the temporary warming spell.

 

Night falls, and stars glitter overhead. Aki is not sure she has ever flown so long on Arit, and for such distance. Occasionally Najima wheels away, east or westward, and takes a broad loop before rejoining Arit. Aki figures he is looking for something – or watching for danger, although she’s uncertain as to what would mess with two dragons.

 

Eventually, the silver Stardust Dragon releases a strange trumpety sound, and Arit follows him into a descent. They land in a cramped copse of pines. Ahead, there sits a small, long hut composed of large wooden boards and stone. It is cold and dead – abandoned, but still looks sturdy.

 

“Where are we?” she asks Yusei, who is stiffly climbing down from Najima’s shoulders. Gone is the relaxed, catlike grace from before – he is now heavy with exhaustion from the long training practice and the long flight.

 

“This is called a waypoint. They used to be very common, dotting the countryside, safe havens for dragon riders and their companions. Very few remain, but this one is very far north, the cold helps keep people and destruction away. Plus, it’s still warded… although, there are some holes I should probably fill.”

 

Aki nears the door of the structure and gives it a push. It falls inward, yawning with a darkness so black even she can barely see. A musty, dusty smell leeches out, and she jumps nearly a foot in the air when Yusei’s gloved hand claps onto her shoulder and gives her a little push. “We’d all like to settle down for now, if that’s okay with you.”

 

“Grumpy,” Aki chides, but she steps into the structure. The boards under her feet creak irritably, and she stands uncertainly in the darkness until a stumble, curse, and whispered flame spell interrupts the night. The fire catches immediately, the wood dry from Gods know how many years sitting in this dark place.

 

With a warm light, at least, it looks much more welcoming and humble. A rough cot sits in the corner opposite a table with a bench, which is shoved up to the window. A bookshelf heavy with dust, spiderwebs, and scrolls rests in the middle of the back wall, and nearer the fireplace is an ensemble of steel pots, wooden stools, whetstones, and a faded floor cushion. A threadbare woven mat takes up the remaining floor. Despite its wear, the only residents seem to be spiders and it is quickly growing warmer.

 

Aki walks along the length of the cabin, looking at the scratchings and hangings on the walls. Furs are tacked here and there, and an absolutely ancient looking bow hangs from a nail above the cot. Some of the scratchings are childishly funny, ranging from inappropriate jokes to simple “Ivreda was here!” lines. There are a few symbols and languages that she does not recognize.  Others are longer, goodbyes and memoirs, and Aki feels a brief tingle of sadness.

 

Next to the window, crumbling parchments are stacked and tacked together, holding letters addressed to various people. The mummified husk of some fruit – perhaps an apple – sits on the window ledge. Aki eyes it in vague disgust.

 

Above the fireplace is a huge wooden beam, serving as a mantle. More whetstones are stacked on one end, and an assortment of mugs and plates takes up the other end. In the center of it all is a massive shield, emblazoned with a pentagonal crest. In the center was a roaring dragon’s head, and at each of the five points was a different symbol – a star, a flame, a feather, a caduceus,  and a rose.  It is surrounded by another dragon, this one painted in chipping crimson paint, arching the entire crest.

 

Yusei follows her gaze to the shield, and he grumbles. “ That was the Emperor’s crest.” He digs a hand into his satchel briefly and pulls out a very small version of his own. “Used to wear this here,” he says, tapping a metal eyelet on his sword’s strap. “No point anymore.”

 

A ki hums, showing she has heard him, and shuffles through the letters. Most of them are names she does not recognize, and those that she does are only from legends and stories, but one in particular catches her eye.

 

_Setsuko_ .

 

She cannot conceal the gasp that escapes her throat as she sees the name. Yusei appears behind her, and his expression does not change, but he says softly, “What are the chances?”

 

Very delicately, Aki picks apart the seal and settles closer to the fireplace. “It’s so old,” she murmurs, and Yusei agrees quietly.

 

The script is, frustratingly, in dragon speech. Aki feels tears threaten, and she’s not sure why. When Yusei nudges her, though, she mutters “Of course I can’t read it.”

 

Gently, he holds out his hand. “I’ll read it for you, if you’d like.”

 

She almost doesn’t want to let him, but she doesn’t know if this crumbling relic will survive long enough for her to learn dragon speech. She places it delicately in his palm, and he skims over it and murmurs in interest before he starts from the top:

 

_Setsuko -_

 

_I can’t say for certain you will ever get this message, since Skirva waypoint is so far north, but it’s worth trying. Easifa and I are being tracked, though, and there’s not much hope that we’ll survive. You know that monster, the one with all the eyes? That guy. I guess they weren’t kidding when they said that he could see all ends of the earth._

 

_You know that thing we talked about? I need you to make sure that you keep it secret, keep it safe. They will stop at nothing to get it. Arit knows where to go. Have her take you._

 

_I’m sorry I can’t stay here on the off chance you arrive, though. I can’t risk this place being found, and being destroyed._

 

_\- Tetsu_

 

Yusei finishes the letter – brief note, really – and sighs. “This is from the time of the Cataclysm. I recognize the names Easifa and Tetsu, they were in Blackwing. I don’t think I ever worked closely with them, at least not in memory. But they were running from one of the dark riders, I think. They were the root of the Cataclysm, after all.”

 

Aki hums, looking somewhat disappointed. “I wonder what that thing he mentions is,” she ponders, and Yusei shrugs.

 

“Dragon riders, at least back in that time period, were always mixed up with something mythical, something legendary. The emperor – his name was Godwin von Domino – was, absolutely obsessed, with this ancient mythical beast from which it is said all dragons are descended, the Crimson Dragon.”

 

“Tell me more?” Aki implores, and Yusei sighs, glancing out the window at the sky.

 

“Only for a bit, it’s getting late. As the legend goes, the Crimson Dragon was the very first dragon, a being of fire and purity, and that it created all life on Earth. It had an enemy, though, which was called the Earthbound God. The Earthbound God was jealous of the Crimson Dragon, and so he sent his children to destroy him. He had seven – Aslla Piscu the Hummingbird, Ccapac Apu the Man, Ccarayhua the Lizard, Chacu Challhua the Whale, Cusillu the Monkey, Uru the Spider, and Wiraqocha Rasca the Vulture. The Earthbound God crafted his children of hate and shadow, in a mockery of the Crimson Dragon’s greatest and most beautiful creations.

In retaliation, the Crimson Dragon created the first dragons. It created the Stardust Dragon, the Red Dragon Archfiend, the Black-Winged Dragon, the Ancient Fairy Dragon, and the Black Rose Dragon. It is said that our companions today are descended from these original five.

There was a great war, which cast the earth into a ceaseless darkness. The dragons emerged victorious after a thousand years of fighting, and with their great wings they blew away the ash and clouds to show the world a great blue sky. It is said that the first Emperor of the land was chosen by the Crimson Dragon, and his five knights rode the first five dragons, but there’s no real proof to that – it was just legend. But like I said, Godwin von Domino was _obsessed_ with finding evidence of the Crimson Dragon.”

 

“Does the legend have anything to do with the Cataclysm?” Aki asks softly. Yusei grimaces.

 

“In part. We discovered a cult. I had a friend – his name was Jack Atlas. He was in Hell Legion, and he came to me one night with a job. He had heard rumours of this cult practicing dark magic, far to the east. Of course, the Emperor forbade dark magic, so it had to be stopped anyways, but news of a cult was… peculiar. Najima and I went with him and his dragon, Dirven. The cult was pretty easy to deal with, or so we thought. They worshiped the Earthbound God, and everything that the guy in the legend stood for, and were in some pretty nasty shit with the spells they were working. We found rows upon rows of cells of prisoners and experiments. It was pretty gruesome.”

 

“What happened?” Aki says, her eyes wide with her rapt attention.

 

Yusei scrubs a hand down his face and stands quickly. “Things went bad after that. Some… bad things happened, it was hard to watch that happen to my friend, much less the rest of his legion. Their dragons went insane. The Cataclysm. I’m assuming you were taught the history,” Yusei babbles. “You can take the bed. I’m gonna sleep with Najima. Goodnight.”

 

Aki is still staring at him, stunned after his rushed exit. She blinks at the door, then at the fireplace. She banks it carefully – it has been a long time since she’s had to look after a fireplace – and crawls onto the musty cot.

 

The cot is more comfortable than it looks, but Aki cannot stop the thoughts in her head tumbling to and fro. The fire dims as the hours crawl on, and the sun starts to touch the sky with pale fingers, and she’s still not slept a wink.

 

She drags herself out the door and wanders into the forest. She has things to think about, and sitting in a musty cabin isn’t helping.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei learns the truth.

Yusei spends his morning patching the holes in the wards after he watches Aki tramp off into the woods. He’s fairly certain she won’t stray too far from Arit.

 

As he is working, he is thinking carefully about the questions she was asking last night. Her intent was undoubtedly innocent curiosity, but it had quickly taken a turn that Yusei is not yet comfortable discussing.

 

_How sad is that_ , he thinks to himself,  _that I haven’t yet come to terms with something that happened fifty years ago._

 

Well, in all fairness, fifty years was a drop in the bucket for most dragon riders. Most.

 

He is just finishing his task when he hears quick footsteps coming towards him. His hearing places it as Aki – a light weight, untrained or unpracticed in moving silently or very gracefully at all, really. But she is  _too_ rushed. He turns to see her emerging from the brush and she is breathless, a twig with a few leaves attached sticking up out of her burgundy bun. 

 

“You’ve gotta come see this,” she gasps, and she grabs his wrist. Yusei, not one for touching that he does not initiate, tries to free himself but only ends up being gripped harder. He gives up for now and trudges after her, wincing as branches reach for his face and hair.

 

Aki leads him for about ten minutes – no wonder she was so breathless – into the darker part of the forest. It is silent here, as if the world was holding its breath. There is very little to see aside from the deep pine green of the woods and the mist of their breath in the air. She drags him just a bit farther and then -

 

It is impossible to miss. Before him is a sight unlike anything he has ever seen – a great crystal tomb has risen up out of the ground, nearly impossible to see in the dimness. Within it are not one, but two great beasts. Yusei instantly recognizes one of them, his heart clenching horribly – that is undoubtedly Easifa.

 

The other beast, Yusei does not recognize, and he is almost glad he doesn’t. It is a great black beast, shaped like a dragon would be. However, instead of scales, it is absolutely  _covered_ in gaping eyes of thousands of different colours. At the very end of its neck, instead of a bulky head like he expects, it terminates into one soulless black eye and a slit for a mouth, gaped wide, revealing needle-sharp teeth.

 

He reaches out, without thinking, and rests a hand on the glassy tomb. He almost instantly realizes his mistake – it is apparently charmed so that when a recognized Dragon Rider touches it, it begins to shatter.

 

As great cracks spiderweb from his palm, he feels himself being tugged away again. Aki is yelling something, but he is too absorbed to hear her.

 

A great rumble issues forth from the crystal, and then -

 

Silently, it dissolves. It is unexpected, and anti-climatic, and the beasts within fall to the ground with graceless thumps. Easifa looks like any other sleeping dragon, but that is not what has captured Yusei’s attention.

 

The thousand-eye dragon, though unmoving, has not closed any of its eyes. Every single one of them is fixated on Yusei.

 

There is a repetitive pressure on his back. He ignores it.

 

With eerie silence, Najima lands upon the thousand-eyed dragon. His talons puncture tens of eyes, his fangs tens more, and yet they stay unwavering, staring deeper and deeper into Yusei. He can feel it slithering through his thoughts, smashing through walls that he has carefully constructed over his years.

 

Yusei is absolutely helpless in this dragon’s grip.

 

Najima sinks his fangs into the thousand-eyed dragon’s neck. The sound of bone crushing is indescribably loud, and then, suddenly, he is back. He gasps for air, his raised hand lowering. Aki is tugging at his arm, his back is sore from where she was beating her fist against it, her voice is hoarse from yelling.

 

He turns from the dragon. “What did you want?” he asks her slowly, and then he slumps to the ground, completely unconscious.

 

 

Yusei’s world is grey and blurry. He cannot see Najima anywhere. He feels like is six years old and small once again, in charge of a hatchling that is about as large as he is. And suddenly, he feels ancient, like he has somehow reached the end of his days despite the fact that ages at roughly one year every hundred.

 

“Najima!” he yells, and the wind snatches his words away. “Najima!”

 

There is no reply. The world goes from grey to black.

 

And then there are eyes.

 

 

Aki wakes from her nest of cloaks on the floor to hear Yusei muttering in his sleep.

 

She drags herself free and brushes a hand over his cheek. His fever has disappeared.

 

“It’s my fault,” she says softly, to no one in particular. She hears the dragons grumbling just outside the window, and another pang that she cannot understand what they say.

 

“I’m only going to assume you’re telling me it’s not my fault, and that I shouldn’t blame myself, but then again, you’re dragons. You could very well be agreeing with me.”

 

“They… disagree,” she hears, a weak voice, one that she was not expecting. Her hand snatches away from Yusei’s cheek and she can feel her face burning. For her effort, she gets a weak chuckle.

 

“It is my fault,” she snaps at him. “I’m the one who dragged you to look at that thing.”

 

“I’m glad you did. That was Easifa. The dragon mentioned in the letter to Setsuko.”

 

“What about the other one? The creepy one you couldn’t stop staring at?”

 

“I don’t know. How long has it been?”

 

“…A day,” Aki mutters. “You stared at that thing for like fifteen minutes, Yusei. I think I lost my voice screaming at you. Najima heard me and came running.”

 

Yusei sits up cautiously. True to what Aki has said, his back protests, the product of literally laying still for an entire day.

 

“Najima killed it?”

 

“Yes. But… you should come see yourself,” Aki says softly. Yusei grunts and picks himself up, carefully picking his way around her makeshift bed.

 

The door opens with a creak of protest that makes Yusei wince. Outside, the sun glittering off of Najima’s scales is nearly blinding, even as he lays mostly in the shade of the pines. Aritafae is

next to him, and Easifa is there as well, blinking slowly in the setting sun as he grooms between two great talons. His black feathers are still rumpled.

 

“He’s awake too?”

 

Aki nods and pushes past him to the dragons. Easifa growls a soft warning, but Arit and Najima quickly reprimand him with growls of their own. Easifa looks briefly affronted, before he lowers his head tiredly and stares at Yusei with fathomless eyes.

 

“ _Yusei Fudo, as I live and breathe,_ ” he says, and his voice is disconcertingly breathy. He is a far cry from the proud beast that he knew before the Cataclysm.

 

“Are you alright?” Yusei asks, and the Black-Wing grunts.

 

“ _I don’t know. I don’t believe I can fly.”_

 

He holds his hand out towards the Black-Wing’s shoulder, and asks, “May I?”

 

Easifa shifts uncomfortably but does not tell him to back off, and so Yusei carefully starts parting the black feathers and examining the skin beneath. Black-Winged Dragons are not completely covered in hard scales like the Stardust, Black Rose, and Archfiend species were, and were much more susceptible to damage in their shoulders, haunches, legs, and lower neck as a result. While Easifa had been imprisoned in that crystal tomb for who knew how long, there was no guarantee he’d escaped unscathed, unlike the thousand-eyed beast that had been in there with him.

 

As Yusei looks for damage, he asks softly what the entire situation with that was.

 

“ _I don’t entirely remember. I remember drawing the monster away from Tetsu. I remember creating the crystal, but I don’t know how. I could not let that monster carry on as it was.”_

 

“Do you know what that other thing was?”

 

Easifa shifts uncomfortably again, looking carefully at Yusei. “ _You do not know of it?”_

 

Yusei frowns. “No. When the Cataclysm initially hit, I was in Tes’afin, with Atlas and Dirven. We were at the epicenter, more or less.”

 

Easifa grumbles. _“I remember Dirven. A good dragon. Fudo, the thousand-eye_ was _a dragon. It was perverted by dark magic, its rider torn asunder and put together once again._ ”

 

“Who?”

 

Easifa sighs, and then hisses as Yusei prods a tender spot. He apologizes, and beckons the dragon carry on.

 

“ _You remember Kiryu, and_ _D_ _urdirenth,_ _yes?”_

 

Yusei stops in his examination. “They were also in Hell Legion. I was told that they were killed at the start.”

 

“ _Hm… yes, and no. We all saw Kiryu die, and Durdirenth fall with him… but that_ thing _came about… and brought them back. In the worst way possible. Kiryu, mad with shadow, and Durdirenth returned as that thousand-eyed aberration.”_

 

Yusei steps back, horror touching his features. “What?”

 

“ _Do not gape like a fish out of water, silver one. It happened to all of them at one point or another,_ _at least until the Extermination leaked out of the palace walls_ _. You should know that?”_

 

Yusei shakes his head slowly. “You need to explain. More details. Please.”

 

Easfia eyes him carefully. “ _The Cataclysm was caused by what, Fudo?”_

 

“I was told that there was a curse, dark magic at work, targeting the Hell Legion and their Archfiends.”

 

“ _That is only part of the story. The cult that you and Atlas encountered in Tes’afin was what started it. They sought revenge, against the Archfiend that had destroyed their shrine to the Earthbound God.”_

 

Yusei shakes his head again. “No. We killed them all, we made certain of it.”

 

“ _You missed one.”_

 

“Who would we have missed?” Yusei snaps. “We scoured the entire compound.”

 

“ _His name was Rutger. He was the first.”_

 

“The first _what?_ Are you talking about Rutger _Godwin von Domino_? The general? _”_

 

“ _There would be none other. You remember when he died in battle. He was_ your _general, after all, Fudo.”_

 

Yusei sits down in the grass, holding his head. “General Rutger was killed. We buried his body. I can still remember the place.”

 

“ _A dark power brought him back.”_

 

“The Earthbound God.”

 

“ _Not quite. A messenger of the Earthbound God. You may know his name as Uru.”_

 

Yusei laughs suddenly. “This is insane. Are you sure you didn’t go crazy after being stuck in that rock for fifty years?”

 

A great taloned paw traps him against the ground. Two talons sink inches deep on either side of Yusei’s head. He can hear Najima moving with a roar.

 

“ _I would sooner joke about treason before the Emperor than tell lies about the Cataclysm.”_

 

The threat is obvious. “Najima, don’t attack him,” he shouts suddenly, remembering the pissed off dragon coming their way. Dirt sprays over him as the Stardust Dragon halts. He sits up between Easifa’s talons and spits it out.

 

“ _I know this is a great deal to take in, all of you._ ” Easifa has the conscience to sound apologetic. _“You truly did not know?”_

 

“There was no one left to tell me,” Yusei snaps as he stands. “Your legion fled, and the Mercy Legion fled. The Rose Legion vanished. The Hell Legion was going insane one by one. The Emperor was in a panic, Easifa.” Memories are spewing from Yusei’s mouth unbidden, uncontrolled. “He wasn’t telling anyone anything, became reclusive in the dungeons of the palace. Every damn day we stood at the gates, fighting our closest allies. It never seemed like there were that many Hell Legion riders, until we were killing them in droves. We were at it for _months_.”

 

He cannot stop himself, despite the fact that there is a voice in his head telling him _stop STOP STOP_ , and his voice is escalating into shouting with each and every word, and his hand finds the garnet pendant around his neck, under his coat. He thrusts it at the Black-Wing, and finds to his horror that his voice has completely broken. “I had to kill my best friend, my _brother_. He was not himself. He wanted me dead but he did not know my face. His last moments were as horrifying to him as they were to me, Easifa. He was no monster – he was a _puppet_.

“He and I were among the last ones, Easifa. My entire legion was slaughtered save two others. His entire legion was, too. We had no healers, no messengers, no spell-casters. The Emperor was dead. So we left. Different corners of the world. We could only speculate what happened.”

 

Aki is gaping at him from a few feet away, fear and sadness etched into her features. The dragons are all silent – Arit and Easifa look guilty, ashamed. Najima bears only the countenance of grief.

 

Yusei slumps to his knees, Jack’s pendant held in a crushing grip. “There was no one left.” His voice is jagged and soft, he is _choking_ on a pain he has kept buried for fifty years. It is absurdly out of character.

 

Aki tugs on his shoulder and goads him to stand. She brings him back to the cabin, where he trips on the ragged floor mat and does not bother getting up again. She has tears in her eyes, tears that he will not cry, and they start to drip in hot streams down her cheeks as she tries to orient him again.

 

“I don’t know what that was about,” she sniffs, miserable in her lack of understanding and sadness over his own obvious issues with his past. Instead of answering, he reaches for her – this stranger he has just met – and pulls her close.

 

He does not cry, but he comes close as he sits against the wall with the young woman pulled onto his lap. His face is buried in her shoulder, and he is trembling, and Aki does not know what to do but deal with the awkward handling and run her fingers through his hair and tell him that he is okay.

 

He is okay. He is alive, and unhurt, and he is surrounded by dragons and pine trees in the peaceful north. He has an apprentice to look after – a purpose in life – and a place to live. But in these moments, when the sun is just setting and the cold is starting to leech into the cabin once again, it feels so heavy, as if he is again under Easifa’s foot.

 

“He told me what actually happened. With the Cataclysm. I didn’t know. I _couldn’t_ know.” His voice is weak and muffled in her leather coat. She fidgets with his collar, before she grasps his hand – still clenched around the garnet pendant – and gently pries it from his grip. He looks up at her again, something like anger flashing through his eyes, but he settles when she gently drapes it over his head and settles it against his sternum. She toys with it very briefly, before she tucks it back under his shirt.

 

He hisses and jumps as she does so, and she looks up at him in concern. A bitter laugh escapes his lips. “Your hands are freezing.”

 

Seeing an opportunity, she puts both hands on his face, just to see him squirm. A laugh escapes her, but he does not release her or make much of an effort to escape her apparently cold hands.

 

“Yusei?” she asks gently, and his eyes – so deeply sapphire that she is lost in them, meet her own. They are so close – the last time Aki has been this close to another person, he was trying to kill her. The darkness of the cabin has wrapped securely around them, though, and despite the cold she feels warm and safe in his lap.

 

His head tips forward and rests on her forehead. It is no magical kiss, but it is such a comforting gesture that she forgets about any desire that may have been building. Her eyes slide closed, and just as she is starting to drift, Yusei shifts her so that he can stand and put her in the bed.

 

He starts to move away after he lays her down, but she grabs his wrist. “Stay in here,” she mutters sleepily, and he eyes her almost warily. She sits up on her elbow and pulls so that he has to sit at the edge at least, and she scoots over into the wall, and Yusei gives in, exhausted as he is, and lays back on the other half of the bed, falling asleep faster than Aki thought possible.

 

“Goodnight,” she whispers, curling into herself to sleep as well.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff.

 

 

As ever, Yusei rises with the sun.

 

After his outburst the evening before, he expects to feel tired, or heavy, or hollow. However, he is surprisingly light… and warm. He sits up a bit, confused, before he remembers that he is at a waypoint, in a bed, and that Aki had asked him to stay.

 

The young Rider in question is curled into a little ball at his hip, which explains the warmth.

 

He nudges her awake, and she blinks sleepily at him in the dimness of the cabin. “You really wake up this early _every day?_ ” she murmurs, her head dropping, but she gets up with him. She is a stumbling, bleary mess while he is already alert and moving, and she barely catches the apple that he throws at her, or the chunk of waybread that follows.

 

“I recommend eating quick, we have a lot of training we need to do,” Yusei says, and Aki grumbles but does as she’s told. Arit, Najima, and Easifa are still asleep, frost-coated hills curled around the edges of the clearing.

 

They start the way they did three days before, with sword work. Aki still is pained by the greatsword, but Yusei lets her move into some of her old patterns again, and she finds that the familiar movements help even with the unfamiliar weapon.

 

It is nearly three in the afternoon when Yusei stops and simply walks away, and Aki decides not to question his habits. He gives her more waybread and some pemmican, and she eats it slowly as he haltingly starts to teach her short phrases and verbs in dragon tongue. His informs her that it wasn’t ever designed for humans to speak, but that it was possible. However, dragon mouths and voice boxes couldn’t form the vast majority of human words, which was why they needed to learn to understand at the very least.

 

He does actually laugh at her as she tries to mimic the words that come from his mouth, and the dragons are completely beside themselves in glee. Easifa, at least, crawls over and starts to speak in Yusei’s stead, although it doesn’t quite help Aki with the stumbling and rough consonants.

 

By the time the sun is setting, she can understand the most basic of phrases from the dragons, and can manage “ _greetings,” “yes,”_ and “ _no”_ with acceptable challenge. Yusei seems to consider this appropriate improvement from “knowing jack shit,” and lets her take a break finally. Her brain feels like putty, and Yusei laughs as she tells him this.

 

“Hey… Yusei?” she asks, a while later, and he hums to show he has heard her. He is hunched over one of the letters on the windowsill, reading it carefully. “You mentioned that dragons can’t form most human words, but they don’t seem to have any issue with any of the names we’ve said so far,” she began. “And I remember my mother telling me that I was named after Aki’iza, who was one of the great generals of Rose Legion.”

 

Yusei can tell what she is about to ask. “We dragon riders – and those associated – are given names similar to words of, or in, dragon-tongue. Even Jack – the name sounds like the dragon-tongue prefix _jakh’,_ an honorific denoting a king. Not all the names have meaning, but the sounds that form the name at least are able to be said by dragons.”

 

“Where did the name Yusei come from?”

 

He chuckles wryly. “That one, as far as I know, falls under the ‘random mix of sounds that dragons can produce’ category.”

 

If she is disappointed by this answer, she doesn’t show it. Instead, a little giggle escapes her lips. “Do you know anyone at all who they can’t say their name?”

 

A smirk lifts Yusei’s mouth. “Yeah, actually. I had a friend in Blackwing Legion – well, still _have_ , but I don’t really see him a lot – who goes by Crow. All of the dragons make do with a _kaah_ sound, but they can’t actually say ‘Crow.’ It’s really rather funny.”

 

“How’d he end up with that name?”

 

“He was an orphan, he chose it for himself. Then, he was too stubborn to change it when he was brought to the legion, and his dragon – Qaivanyrth – seemed perfectly content to just call him _kaah_. It actually turned into something of a joke with Master Yanagi.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Crows caw, crows _kaah_ ,” he deadpans. 

 

Aki can’t hide the giggle that escapes her once again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go wrong.

 

 

 

They continue in relative peace for months that eventually stretch into a year.

 

Aki’s body changes into something leaner, muscle smoothing taut and flat over her arms, chest, abdomen, and legs. She feels lighter, on her feet and in her heart.

 

Barring the occasional argument, she and Yusei get along better than she ever expects. She grows used to waking up at dawn, such that he does not have to poke and prod until she rises. The greatsword is now a familiar weight instead of a horrible chore. Yusei start s her on the bow, and she finds that it is something she is better at than a greatsword or a dagger.

 

He begins to take her hunting in the pine woods – his stores of waybread and pemmican ran out quickly, and in addition to meat and fish, the forest is rich with edible fungus and berries. They both steer very clear of the spot where Easifa and Durdirenth had been found – where Durdirenth still lay. She learns to move silently, with the grace of a cat, as he does over the soft bed of pine needles and ferns. He teaches her tracking and what herbs are useful for health versus what ones do harm along the way.

 

She is also becoming more and more fluent in dragon-tongue, and Yusei finds her spending hours talking to Aritafae. She tells him, when he asks, that she has a lot to catch up on.

 

The peace, however, does not last.

 

It is the dead of night when she feels Yusei sit bolt upright. She grumbles as she is disturbed from her spot against his hip, and his hand finds her shoulder.

 

“Wake up,” he whispers. “Something is coming.”

 

She strains to hear what he means, and then –  _there_ . A flutter in the distance, so faint that she has to wonder exactly how light a sleeper Yusei is to have heard it.

 

He is stuffing his boots on as she sits up and grabs her gloves off of the floor, and he waits for her to hurry up, shoulder pressed against the wall by the door. She steps out into the night with him, and immediately sees that the dragons are irritated, scanning the trees. She finds herself backed against Najima’s foreleg, a great talon next to her boot.

 

Then, there is keening. It is an unnatural sound that sends fear into her heart. She can feel Yusei’s presence not two feet away from her, but the distance feels surreal and gaping.

 

As the keening grows louder, so too does the fluttering, turning into crashing through the woods. She braces herself, hand on her sword, and then, they break through the treeline.

 

They are horrible and stink putridly of ash and rot – black husks shaped like men, but distorted and elongated. They do not have faces – at least, not traditional ones. Instead, they move unblinkingly with a vivid blue circle impressed upon their heads. How they make the keening noise, she does not know.

 

She forgoes the sword in favour of an arrow as  Yusei takes a charge to the nearest one. Easifa and Arit are fighting viciously against a pack across the clearing – they had come from behind, too? - and she can smell the acidic stench of Arit’s poisonous miasma. As a precaution, she throws up a shield behind herself and Yusei and lets another arrow fly. 

 

Najima lets loose a screech, cosmic blue light spilling from his jaws. Flame so hot that it glows white ignites a line of the monsters, but more fill in where they fell. 

 

Aki is letting arrows fly second by second. Every time one hits, the monster following crumbles like rotting wood.

 

Then, her hands grab at air. She has run out of arrows, and throws the bow to the ground, having no time to properly stow it.

 

The entire time, Yusei has been whirling between the monsters, destroying wide swaths of them. She finds herself at his back, matching his rhythm, following steps that she no longer has to think about. When Yusei ducks as a gout of cosmic flare pours over him, she ducks with him.

 

It feels like hours pass, when in reality it was likely only a matter of minutes. They are still fighting through swaths of beasts when a voice rings out behind them.

 

“As entertaining as it is to watch you take down that rabble, I really do think I have to get a move on.”

 

The monsters crumble away once and for all, and Yusei’s head snaps to the person who spoke. Aki looks up as well, finding him on their roof. He is tall and gaunt, silver hair scraped under a black hood. The rest of him is swathed in shadows cast by the towering pines.

 

Yusei growls and draws his bow, taking aim. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

 

“Taking back what’s mine,” the figure replies, voice cracking into a shrieking laugh. “It’s a shame you don’t recognize me, Fudo. I thought our legions were _friends_.”

 

As he speaks, there is a crashing in the woods behind the cabin. The roof buckles as something huge claws its way atop the structure, not quite splintering but barely holding the weight itself. A soulless black eye lowers to Yusei’s level, and Aki is staring in horror at the black beast.

 

The figure mounts his hellish beast and tears the hood from his head. Yusei can barely hold back his surprised exclamation of “Kiryu?” before the monster lets loose a soul-sapping screech and flares its threadbare wings.

 

Aki is panicking. “I thought Najima killed that thing! Months ago!”

 

Yusei is too frozen to answer. The smooth black skin of the beast is rippling and cracking, thousands upon thousands of eyes opening and rolling until they find Yusei, find Aki, find the dragons. She cannot move – ice is working its way into her lungs, into her blood. She cannot scream, or run, or do  _anything_ remotely helpful in this situation.

 

The beast lunges, and everything fades into grey.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crow enters the picture.

 

 

 

Aki’s first sensation when she comes to is warmth, and for a moment she thinks it was all a nightmare. But she is not curled on her side against Yusei’s hip, as became habit. She is laying in a strange, colourful tent, on a bedroll. It stinks of purifying incense.

 

She sits up slowly, and finds to her horror that she is topless and bound in bandages. A shirt – not hers – is folded neatly next to her, and she snatches it up and squirms into it. It is soft and well-cared for, and she fingers the hem appreciatively as she tries to figure out what her next step would be.

 

Her leather armour is on a chest across the tent. Not standing around in a borrowed shirt and smallclothes would be nice, she decides, and she drags herself from the bedroll to put the armour on.

 

As she stands, her legs scream in pain, and her back replies as well.  It is not so unbearable that she cannot stand, or that she cries out, but it is disconcerting. She drags the trousers over her (bandaged) legs and fastens buckles and loops, drawing her gloves over her fingers and her coat over the entire ensemble.  Her fingers find soft, thin lines in the material. Repairs.  She feels a rush of gratitude to whoever did that job.

 

It is comforting, at least, to be surrounded by sturdy leather long since sculpted to her figure.

 

She steps out of the tent to find that it is night, and that it is much warmer than it was in Skirva. There are no towering pine trees, and the vastness of the sky almost gives her panic. She turns around in a slow circle, looking at the village of tents and campfires.

 

A figure bounds up to her, and she immediately jumps to defense,  almost falling into the canvas wall behind her .  He is her height – that is to say, short – and wearing similar leather armour, and his flame-coloured hair is pulled behind his head in a shaggy mess.  Tattoos and piercings adorn his face and neck.

 

He stops, seeing that she has recoiled in fear. He holds his hands out. “Hey, don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Crow.”

 

“Crow,” Aki mutters. “ _Kaah_.”

 

He smirks. “Yusei told you about that, then? He always found it funny. Yeah. That’s me.”

 

He draws nearer and gently takes her shoulder. “I ain’t gonna hurt you, don’t worry. We’re friendly here.”

 

“Where’s Yusei?”

 

Crow waved a hand. “He’s recovering in his own tent. I’m gonna bring you over for some food, though. And I’m assuming you wanna see your dragons. It was nice to see Najima again, and Easifa, but the other one I don’t really recognize.”

 

“They’re all okay?”

 

“Yusei was a little touch-and-go for a while, but Ruka’s been assuring us he’ll be alright. You have her to thank for saving your life, by the way.”

 

“Ruka?”

 

“Yeah… little thing, Mercy legion remnant. Never thought I’d see another cleric till the day I died. That _thing_ back at the waypoint kinda fucked you guys up. If Najima hadn’t been there, you guys would’ve been dead before we flew over.”

 

“Is _Najima_ okay?”

 

“He’ll have some scars, but he’s fine. Up and about.” He shoves a bowl full of some kind of stew into her hands, and her stomach growls. She doesn’t ask any more questions as she eats it, finding it warm and filling.

 

Crow is laughing at her again as she finishes it off. “I was hungry,” she mutters, handing the bowl back. He passes it off to someone and grabs her arm again.

 

“Dragons, then.”

 

The three that she is familiar with are all laying curled in a cluster at one end of the camp. Interestingly, she has spotted four Black-winged dragons that are completely unfamiliar to her scattered about the camp.

 

“You guys are truly the remnants of the Blackwing Legion?”

 

“A-yup, that’s us. Travel the world, bear news for the common folk, et-cetera et-cetera et-cetera.”

 

She laughs a little at his hasty explanation of the Blackwing legion. “I never knew anyone in any of the legions except for Yusei and my mother. You’d be the third, I guess.” He looks confused, and she explains hastily her situation, why she was with Yusei in the first place. His eyes light up in mirth.

 

“Of course they’d get the idea to stick you with him.”

 

“Hey, I mean, I’ve learned a lot with him. More than I would have ever figured out on my own.”

 

“True. Hey, if he ever gives you grief, though, you’re welcome to take up shack with us. We pick up stragglers all over.”

 

Aki laughs at his comment. “Sure, sure.”

 

As she finally draws within the range of the dragons, they all three lift their heads to her. Arit is on her feet immediately, nearly trampling Aki and Crow in her rush. Her snout bumps Aki about, assessing and prodding and judging. Finally, she lowers her head to look her in the eye and murmurs, “ _Are you alright, little one?”_

 

Aki strokes her hand up the rough scales on Arit’s brow. “Yes, I’m fine, Arit. Still in a little pain, but I’ll heal.”

 

Arit grunts.  _“Girl!”_ she calls, sounding more demanding than Aki has ever heard her. Crow has to stifle a laugh. 

 

A small girl with wide hazel eyes scrambles away from Najima and to Arit’s forefoot. “Yes, Aritafae?”

 

“ _She is in pain.”_

 

Aki holds up her hands. “No, no, I’m fine, I swear, I think I’m just a little stiff from laying where I was for so long and – what did you just do?” she breaks off, staring in wonder at the girl.

 

“I soothed the pain. You feel better now, right?”

 

“I… yes. Thank you. Are you Ruka?”

 

She nodded, smiling shyly. “Ruka Sato.”

 

“Aki Izayoi. I heard I owe you my life.”

 

“It was nothing, really!” the girl insists, holding up her hands. “I don’t know what Crow’s told you. But it’s my job to take care of people.”

 

“Are you a remnant of Mercy Legion?”

 

Ruka rubs the back of her neck. “I wasn’t even born when the Cataclysm happened. My legion was nomadic, so we were very far away. I was born and grew up with them, and Otu hatched the day I was born, so they raised me as a Rider even though the legion wasn’t really a thing anymore.”

 

“Otu?”

 

“Yes. My dragon. She’s out right now.”

 

Aki swallows tightly. “Could you take me to Yusei? I’d like to see him.”

 

Whereas Crow hesitated, Ruka agrees readily. “Yes. I think it was time that I saw him again anyways. I’ve been trying to help Najima out some – it wasn’t a life-threatening injury, but he may have issues flying if I don’t take care of it as much as possible. I’d hate to do that to a dragon, especially one known for his crazy flight skills.”

 

“I don’t even really remember what happened,” Aki murmurs as she follows the girl. “There was a monster… it had thousands of eyes. And when it looked at us, we just… froze. I don’t think it was fear. I think it was some kind of spell. And then I remember it lunging at us.”

 

“It… I think it tore you guys up pretty badly. I had to spend a few days on you both to keep you guys alive. But Najima was able to keep it from killing you guys, and Crow had been on his way back here and saw the fight… I guess four dragons on one monster is pretty even odds.”

 

She lets Aki go into the blue tent she has led them to first. As her eyes adjust to the dimness, she sees a very similar setup to what she had woken up to – Yusei laying on a bedroll, shirtless, with purifying incense burning. She wrinkles her nose at the strong sage scent.

 

“He is not in danger of dying anymore – it’s just a matter of when he wakes up. You can stay with him, if you’d like.” The girl moves her hands over his chest, warm white light glowing at her fingertips.

 

Aki waits until she finishes and leaves before she sinks to her knees at Yusei’s head and drags his hand to her. She stares at him for a moment before she realizes what is missing – his pendant. She scans around the room quickly, before she locates it with his own armour. She grabs it and is slipping it over his head when he wakes up, bleary.

 

“I feel like you’ve been doing that a lot, lately” he mutters, closing his hand around both the pendant and her hand and squeezing gently. He sits up with a groan.

 

“What happened?”

 

Aki reiterates what she’s been told thus far as he figures out what to do with himself, and politely averts her eyes as he gets dressed. “You said Najima got hurt?”

 

“Yeah, the girl – Ruka – says he’s fine, but she’s also worried that it’ll affect his flying.”

 

Yusei groans. “Damn it,” he hisses as he stalks from the tent, Aki trailing tentatively behind him. He finds the same end of the camp that she had been at previously and stalks right up to Najima.

 

Yusei spends thirty minutes examining every scale on Najima’s body, it seems, for damage and winces when he finds the remaining scar from his fight with Durdirenth along the edge of his right wing. “I’m sorry,” Yusei says, even as Najima is reassuring him that it is definitely not his fault.

 

As Aki is watching, she feels an unfamiliar presence beside her. She looks, expecting a person, and nearly faints when she sees another dragon unlike any she has seen before. Smooth, fish-like scales shine pearlescently before fading into seafoam green and sky blue. Great horns, gold, crystals, and lace-like projections form a great crest at the creature’s head.

 

“ _I am Otu_ ,” the dragon says at her shocked gasp.

 

“What on earth are you…?” Aki wonders aloud, before she claps a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”

 

The dragon makes a familiar sound – laughter. “ _It is natural to be shocked by something that you have not seen before,”_ she says. Her voice is strong and kind.

 

Yusei has stopped his mother-henning over Najima and stands before Otu as well. He looks directly at Aki as he speaks. “This is an Ancient Fairy Dragon. I’m sure you can see where they get the name.”

 

Aki nods slowly, walking over to him and wrapping him in a crushing hug. He stiffens before he relaxes and pats her awkwardly on the shoulder, but she doesn’t let go. “I was scared,” she mutters against his shoulder, and his awkward stance drops into something more natural.

 

“I was too. I’m sorry.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispers, “so don’t apologize. We’re alive.”

 

“You guys want to tell us what happened?” Crow says loudly, barging in on their embrace. He’s giving Yusei what can only be described as a shit-eating grin, and Yusei stoically glares in return.

 

The two follow Crow, though, and Ruka trails along behind at a short distance until Yusei sighs loudly and says “You might as well walk up here with us, cleric.” They are bustled into yet another tent, at the complete opposite end of the camp, where Crow is already throwing cushions onto the floor and snapping his fingers at candles, creating a warm glow in the room.

 

“So,” he drawls. “Sit. Talk. Explain. Please.”

 

Aki, despite never having met this man, is quickly growing used to his brusqueness regarding… well, everything. _You just woke up? Let me drag you clear to the other side of camp! You two nearly died? We’re going to sit and talk about it right now!_

 

As Yusei recounts the story of meeting Aki – occasionally looking to her for her side of things, which she quietly fills in – she drifts a bit. The smell of incense is heavy in this tent, too, and she decides that must be something these people did by default.

 

Crow is rubbing his head by the time Yusei finishes, his brow furrowed. “That’s… a lot, man,” he finally says, propping his hands on his knees. “Kiryu? And I know about Tetsu missing, but finding Easifa without him?”

 

Yusei nods. “Easifa is actually the one who filled in a lot of missing details for me.”

 

Crow huffs. “I’ll have to talk to him. He’s been staying away from the rest of them - Qaivanyrth tried getting close and he just hissed. Tetsu’s been missing since we all left, so… I don’t know. Maybe he’s pissed about that?”

 

Yusei shrugs. Crow backtracks - “And that other thing you mentioned. That whole deal with the arrowhead.”

 

Yusei looks at Aki. “You’re gonna have to explain it all to him. I’m spotty on the details myself.”

 

She draws herself straight once again, lacing her fingers together in an attempt to keep from fidgeting under Crow’s intense steel gaze. “My mother, Setsuko – she was the one who was a Dragon Rider officially – was killed shortly after I’d turned sixteen,” she begins, and she winces to see pity form almost immediately in Crow’s eyes. She waves her hands. “Don’t get like that,” she says, trying not to snap. “I dealt with it. She was killed by a shade, his name is Divine. I don’t really know why. But, at the time,I’d been very caught up in the idea of getting revenge for his killing her. It kind of consumed me. I left my home, with Arit, and my mother’s armor, and started trying to find him.” Here, she breaks off and sighs.

“It took me about thirty years to track him down. When a shade doesn’t want to be found, he cannot. But apparently my efforts attracted his attentions, and he let me find him. I went right into his trap, and he surrounded and separated Arit and I. I was down pretty embarrassingly fast. He shot me with an arrow, an arrow with a head made of obsidian-steel.”

 

Crow is looking concerned again. “I don’t think shades can work with obsidian-steel. It’s an unsummonable metal. He must have been given the arrows.”

 

Aki hums. “I don’t even know many details. I was inexperienced and not thinking clearly. I just remember waking up next to a fire. Yusei saved me.”

 

Crow is still caught on the arrows. “Who would give a shade obsidian-steel arrows?”

 

“You’ve got me,” Yusei mutters. “Maybe it has something to do with these dark riders?”

 

Crow shrugs. “Maybe. Did he say anything? Maybe some kind of weird ‘heat of the moment’ exclamation?” he asks, addressing Aki once again.

 

She squeezes her eyes shut, trying desperately to remember. As soon as she’d been separated from Arit, she’d freaked, and the incident remained as a hasty blur and deadly laughter.

 

“Lizards,” she suddenly exclaims. Yusei and Crow look at her like she’s lost her mind. “He had this lizard motif going on everywhere. Black and green lizards.”

 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Crow grumbles, but Yusei looks pensive.

 

“It’s a stretch, but… Ccarayhua is the image of a lizard. If… and this is a _strong_ ‘if,’ this shade were connected to a dark rider, and these dark riders are connected to the Earthbound God’s children...”

 

He draws off, staring into the distance, and Crow looks a little concerned. “This is so beyond anything I was expecting,” he mutters.

 

Yusei sighs. “We’re leaving tomorrow,” he tells Crow. He turns to address Aki. “We’re finding this shade and getting answers, Aki. It might just be a false suspicion. But I won’t be leaving any stones unturned, if it has anything to do with what really happened.”

 

Aki nods weakly. “I fought him in Jurdan. I can show you where,” she says softly, trying to ignore the flutter of fear in her ribs.

“That’d be a good starting point, at least,” Yusei says. “He may not have even left. He might think you died from the arrow.”

 

Crow chimes in from his seat. “We’re on the east bank of the Isami River, right now. Qaivanyrth and I

will fly as far as the border between here and Tes’afin, but we can’t leave these people.”

 

Yusei nods in acceptance. “It’s more than I could ask. Thank you, Crow.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei and Aki enter Tes'afin and have a chat.

 

 

 

True to his word, as soon as the trees finally thin into rocky scrubland, Qaivanyrth veers away and she barely makes out Crow’s wave farewell. Her back protests as she reaches to adjust the harness around her legs – the flight to this border has taken well over two hours, and with their collective injuries, was a miserable trip at that.

 

The sun is high overhead, blazing down onto the scorched earth beneath. Centering herself, she taps Arit’s shoulder and yells to the dragon to fly ahead. It is now her turn to lead, back to that fateful cavern.

 

As time drags on, though, she is feeling less and less sure of herself. Yusei is showing no outward signs of fear or pain, at least not when she twists to look at him. Admittedly, it is hard to read his expression with a scarf and hood drawn around his features against the wind.

 

The sun begins to caress the horizon and Yusei decides, in his wordless manner that she has become accustomed to, that they have gone far enough. Najima breaks away and flies in a wide loop before settling on the ground some distance away, and Arit lands shortly after.

 

Aki picks her way down from the scales, her legs quivering as they awaken. Yusei is stretching, favouring his right leg himself, and Aki wobbles over to him and plops down on the ground by his feet.

 

“I wonder if Easifa is gonna stay with the Blackwings for long,” she ponders aloud, and Yusei shrugs.

 

“He’s probably going to try and find Tetsu. I can’t imagine he enjoys being away from his rider. Dragons are prone to separation anxiety.”

 

Aki snorts. “That’s a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?”

 

Najima grumbles at her back and she flaps a hand at him dismissively.

 

Yusei finishes throwing together a fire before he too slumps onto the dry ground. “It’s been a long time since I’ve slept outside,” he says suddenly, and Aki laughs.

 

“We were in that cabin for a long time. I think I’m gonna miss it.”

 

“It was a total dump,” Yusei replies, snark lacing his voice.

 

“It had _charm_ ,” Aki retorts. She is happy to hear that Yusei is in the mood for joviality – he must not be feeling too bad after all. She sobers, though, when her mind falls onto their mission.

 

“Hey, Yusei?” she says to the stars, and he hums in reply. “I hate admitting this, but I’m afraid.”

 

“Why are you afraid?” he asks, sitting up to peer down at her.

 

She lets her eyes drift shut. “Ever since I brought it up, all I can see in my mind is those lizards. It felt wrong – angry, and evil – at the time, and it feels wrong now. Something is going to go wrong. I am positive.”

 

Yusei is giving her a peculiar look. “Are you sure it’s not just anxiety, Aki?”

 

She sighs and sits up to curl around her knees. “It might be. But it also might not be. Some Rose psychics could foresee the future.”

 

“Are you one of them?”

 

“...Well… not exactly, my ability is mostly telekinetic, as you’ve witnessed. But, it’s not _unheard_ of...”

 

Yusei’s hand closes over her shoulder. “Listen,” he begins. “I can’t promise anything – you know that. But, I’ve faced several shades in my life before. It could very well be that this guy just really loves lizards – the connection to Ccarayhua is mere speculation. They do tend to fixate and obsess on some subjects. I understand your fear, Aki,” he says, and his grip momentarily tightens before he releases her. “I’ll keep you as safe as I can.”

 

Aki gnaws on her lower lip and nods, acknowledging him. He pokes at the fire briefly before he lays down once again. “I’d get some sleep if I were you,” he says, sounding more tired than he did a moment before. “We still have a way to go before we hit Jurdan, and we will get there long before sundown.”

 

She says nothing, but lowers herself into her usual, and familiar position – curled into Yusei’s hip. She doesn’t know why, but the closeness and the warmth tucked against his side is a source of deep comfort for her.

 

She falls asleep shortly after, with images of dragons and shining silver knights wandering haphazardly through her bleary mind.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go wrong again.
> 
> WARNING: Character death.

 

 

 

They touch down in a rocky hollow, late in the afternoon.

 

Yusei is immediately alert and on the prowl, his sword glittering in the sun. Aki draws her own, testing its familiar weight in her hand for the first time since they woke. Aside from the slight twinge in her arm, nothing has changed but the scenery.

 

Yusei narrows his eyes at the gaping maw of the cavern. “It’s very… nondescript,” he finally says. “Are you sure this is the right place? The entire desert is dotted with caverns like this...”

 

Aki nods. “I’m completely positive. This is the place.”

 

“It feels off,” he suddenly agrees. “This isn’t the kind of place a shade should be living.”

 

“I wasn’t aware you were so interested in the dwellings of creepy spirit men.”

 

“No, really. They usually conjure up some kind of huge palace shindig to act like kings over their puppets.”

 

“Well, maybe just the ones you dealt with did. I can imagine that’d be annoying to normal people, having a huge palace suddenly burst out of their cornfields...”

 

He gives her a simpering look and she stifles a laugh before she sobers once again. “Trust me, Yusei. This is the place.”

 

He shakes his head slowly but begins to wander into the cavern. Arit and Najima won’t even draw near it,though, and Yusei gives his dragon a concerned look. Najima says nothing, though, merely bares his fangs in a snarl at the dark hole.

 

Aki’s eyes adjust into shades of muted grey and green as the sunlight fades behind them. Her hands start to shake as the shapes become more and more defined.

 

Her foot bumps into something that rolls and clatters noisily across the stone, and Yusei halts, watching it go. An arrow – remaining from her sloppy scrap with Divine. She bites her lip and gives him an apologetic look.

 

Her eyes scrape over the lizards carved into the wall. They are everywhere – far more many than there were when she’d arrived. Yusei sees them, too, and his fingers trace over one before he snatches his hand away like it burns.

 

He is next to her suddenly, his movements hasty. “The Cult of Ccarayhua uses this symbol. I remember it from the shrine in the cultist hideout Jack and I had eradicated,” he hisses, breaking off into a curse. “This is getting progressively more confusing, Aki,” he mutters before he wanders away once again, further into the cavern.

 

She shudders and follows him. He is suddenly moving with a haste that she cannot match without making more noise than necessary, so she follows at a distance, and is therefore taken by surprise and breaks off in a muffled scream as something charges at her from the wall.

 

It bowls her over, pale and bedraggled and hissing something over and over again. She manages to roll away enough that she can stand, and she freezes when she sees stringy red hair and crazed, bloodshot green eyes.

 

“Yusei!” she shrieks, and he is there immediately, his blade digging without hesitation halfway into the side of the emaciated shade. Aki dives for her sword as the thing screeches and babbles and drools incoherently.

 

Months ago, Divine had the appearance of a man, at the very least. He was pale and cold and sharp in enough places to make him look vaguely inhuman, but most would simply label him as a peculiar figure than a monster.

 

Now, though, there was no doubt that this was a monster.

 

Aki stammers as Yusei stares at the dying creature in confusion. “That- that’s _him_ , but...”

 

“You’re certain?” he asks, prodding the thing’s face with the tip of his sword. He does not get a reply.

 

As a precaution, he cuts the thing’s head off at the base of its neck. Aki swallows tightly.

 

“The hair… and the eyes. But… he wasn’t like this before. He was _convincing_ and coherent a year ago. Not some half-starved… cryptid.”

 

Yusei turns and settles into a crouch, dropping the head where it was. He picks carefully over the long, spindly fingers, examining the claws and tracing over the brands there. His hands find the head once again and he is poking the blackened teeth in its mouth and chewing his lip in confusion.

 

“Yes,” he agrees, standing and wiping his glove off on the wall. “This was a shade. But I don’t think he was the same before. Do you know what the actual definition of a shade is?”

 

“No,” Aki murmurs, finally picking up her dropped sword. “I don’t.”

 

“A shade is a man who has been possessed by a demon of shadow. It rips out everything about who they are, and basically lives in this hollow husk of a human being, like a parasite. It uses its host to channel magical ability.” Yusei stops and turns. “This _was_ a shade named Divine. But something happened that drove the spirit out. What I just killed was a body on autopilot, with no soul, no mind, and no real drive to live outside of sleep and eat.” He jabs a finger at the wall. “Something tells me that this is connected to the cult symbols. Come on, then. We need to find _something_.”

 

Aki follows him, meekly. Divine is gone, she tells herself, so there is nothing to fear. But the atmosphere in this forsaken hole is still oppressive and heavy and feels so abnormally evil and she is certain that this feeling is what Yusei has closed in on.

 

They run into a wall.

 

Yusei is running his hands over the wall in confusion. “This doesn’t make sense,” he mutters. “There’s still a breeze. A door?”

 

“Not quite,” a new voice says, and Yusei and Aki whirl about to see a new figure. A tall, slender woman is standing not five feet away. She wears a long green gown, and a glowing crystal sits over her forehead.

 

Fisted in her hand, dripping blood lazily onto the floor, is the head that Yusei removed from the man-husk.

 

“Who are you?” Yusei spits. His sword is leveled at the woman.

 

“Put that down,” she sighs, drawing near. “I have no interest in you, rider. It’s the girl I wish to speak to.”

 

Yusei ignores her command and steps in front of Aki, growling. “Stop moving and explain. _Now._ ”

 

“My name is Mistral – Misty, for short,” she says. Her voice sounds like it is floating. “I was a dear friend of Setsuko.”

 

Aki’s interest is immediately piqued. “You knew my mother?” she says softly, peering over Yusei’s shoulder.

 

“Yes. We were sisters under the same flag.”

 

“You were a Rose?”

 

“Yes.”

 

The woman’s mist-blue eyes have focused on her now, drawing her in. “I was. And you are her daughter.” Aki nods weakly.

 

Misty sighs. “I come with a warning, riders. I have no interest in your lives right now – the fates have not yet spun the thread that decides what I shall do with you.” Her arm raises aloft, and the cavern suddenly lights green and purple. The same symbol carved on the walls is etched into the woman’s wrist.

 

Lizards skitter over Aki’s feet and up Misty’s gown, settling over her shoulders and into her hair like demented pendants. “The Cataclysm is not yet over,” she says, her voice airy. “Not while there are Riders that yet remain. The dragons shall be destroyed, and the Earthbound God will finally have his sacred land in his claws once again.”

 

Yusei is about to yell something at her, but the cavern rumbles and becomes brighter still. Aki turns slowly, fear coiling deep in her stomach until it tightens into a heavy rock of horror.

 

The wall behind them is one great eye, staring at them. A low keening sound is building, echoing around the walls. Yusei, powered by his own fear, grabs her and shoves past Misty, dragging her away, away, _away_.

 

They burst out into the night, and Yusei,unthinkingly, throws her on Najima before scrambling up himself. The dragons get that something is _wrong,_ and Najima takes off like a bolt of lightning, Arit following shortly after. Being that she is already so much slower than the Stardust Dragon, though, she lags behind from the get-go.

 

The earth beneath them shatters and splits and yawns inward before a beast more massive than anything Yusei has ever seen is crawling free of its rocky tomb. The monster is reaching skyward, and a behemoth hand nearly swipes Najima from the sky.

 

Whether or not the beast was actually aiming for one of the dragons, or just was crazed, Yusei will never know. Despite the fact that it narrowly misses Najima, though, it does not miss its other potential target.

 

Yusei is on autopilot. _Protect Aki. Escape the monster. Protect Aki. Escape the monster._ Najima screeches, starlight spewing from his maw as he tries and fails to distract the great lizard – Ccarayhua in the flesh – and veers away from the other reaching paw. Aki is shrieking, terrified by the speed, and the monster, and Yusei tightens his grip on her. _Aki will not fall. Protect Aki. Escape the monster._

 

The monster’s other hand finds Aritafae. The Black Rose Dragon twists away from one certain death and straight into the other, suddenly caught like a butterfly in the hands of a child.

 

Is it possible that an Earthbound Immortal can laugh with glee? It certainly seems to be, as Ccarayhua holds aloft his prize. He is completely unfazed by the talons and thorns and poison that Arit is spewing, by the molten starlight billowing over his arms and hands, by the dragon trying desperately to free herself. Aki has gone silent and grey, hands outstretched towards her dragon. Her mouth is forming words that she cannot speak. Her mind is shrieking – aritarit _aritARIT_ _ **ARIT**_ – and everyone knows that there is nothing to be done, that this is it for the last Black Rose.

 

Despite knowing, Aki cannot accept it. Not at all. She will not let this be taken from her – she _refuses –_ but then it is too late and she can do nothing as she trembles, can do nothing as hot tears consume her vision.

 

She cannot look away as Arit’s wings are crushed and rendered bloody and limp by the monster. Ccarayhua is like a child, a schoolboy, spoiled and cruel to that which is smaller than he is.

 

Najima does not let them watch more. With a screech of rage, and grief, and loss, all in one, he wheels away, away from this damned place, away from Arit’s last flight. Away from Tes’afin. The mountains rocket past, the desert fades into scrub and grass and then trees, and finally the river Isami looms into the distance. The sun has risen and set and risen once again, and Najima crashes down into the clearing, dragons screeching in alarm around them.

 

Neither Yusei or Aki move. Najima does not move further towards the encampment, stirring at the early morning interruption.

 

The world is grey and blurry to Aki, and she cannot breathe, and she cannot feel. She stares dumbly into the distance.

 

A voice shatters their silence. “Yusei? Aki? Dude, let go of her – she looks like she can barely breathe – what happened? Why are you here again? Are you okay? Najima’s bleeding – Where’s...”

 

Crow’s rapid-fire questions cease immediately, before he can finish the last, as he puts together the pieces. He is upon them in an instant, prying Aki from Yusei’s death grip around her. “Someone – Anshos! Go find Ruka. Now, _now!_ ”

 

One of the others, a woman with long raven hair, bolts away into the camp. Crow looks torn between his old friend and his newest acquaintance. Yusei finally releases Aki enough that both of them can be dragged from Najima’s shoulders, onto the grass. Aki is unresponsive, and Crow settles his mind with holding her by her shoulders. Yusei, at least, is blinking dazedly, wearing an expression something like _what the fuck just happened_.

 

So Crow turns to Najima. “You’d better explain,” he says. His voice is deadly serious.

 

The dragon rumbles. _Ccarayhua,_ he hisses, stumbling over the word. Crow holds his hands out in a “go on” gesture.

 

_She is gone. Ccarayhua took her._

 

“You don’t mean to say a cult killed a dragon?” Crow snaps, irate.

 

_Ccarayhua himself, you fool,_ Najima hisses, and Crow falls silent and still.

 

“You mean to say that you saw a god?”

 

Najima does not answer, not verbally. His silence is enough.

 

Ruka is suddenly there, and she takes one solid look at Aki before she drops her bandages and herbs. “Anshos didn’t – oh,  _gods_ , what happened?”

 

Crow doesn’t tell her. He can’t find words that wouldn’t come off as insensitive and brash. “Just… help me get them somewhere quiet and out of the sun.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler, really.

 

 

 

Yusei is silent, staring into the flickering of the flames before him. He has regained enough clarity to join Crow by the fire, telling the story in more details than Najima’s obvious curtness. Crow’s face is pale and drawn with anxiety by the time he finishes.

 

Ruka materializes from the darkness. “Yusei?” she says softly, and the other Rider’s attention is immediately upon her. “She’s… gonna be okay, I think,” Ruka says softly. “She’s coherent again, at least, but she needs time. She might like it if you go sit with her.”

 

Yusei shakes his head. “I don’t think she’s feeling very fond of me right now. It was my idea to go there. It was my fault she lost Arit.”

 

Ruka argues back, her gaze challenging. “It was not your fault, Yusei. You could not have known what was there. She doesn’t blame you – she asked for you twice while I was with her.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, maybe so she can personally stab me,” he mutters, but he picks himself up and stalks towards the tent, anger lacing his steps. As soon as the cloth covering the entrance drifts shut once more, though, she croaks his name and the walls he has hastily thrown up shatter and crumble into nothingness once again, and he is on his knees by the bedroll she is curled into, his forehead pressed against the ground.

 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Aki. I can’t – there’s nothing – you...”

 

Her hand finds his head, fingers lacing into his hair. Her voice sounds hollow, brittle, a little broken. “It’s not your fault, Yusei. Please…  _please_ don’t blame yourself.” She sounds like she only half believes what she’s saying, and he definitely doesn’t blame her for that.

 

She tugs at his shoulder to get him to sit up. “Look at me,” she demands, when he does, of all things, she slaps him,  _hard_ .

 

He spits blood onto the floor and gives her a sideways glare. “What was that for?”

 

“You do this to yourself a lot, Yusei. You blame yourself for shit that really isn’t your fault. You didn’t know that monster was there. You did what you did to protect me – if you hadn’t dragged me onto Najima, I’d have died too. It’s not your fault that Arit is – was – slower than Najima. It’s not your fault that she was killed by a _god_. In case you’ve forgotten, I was standing right there when Easifa  told you the truth about the Cataclysm and you completely _shut down_. The Cataclysm wasn’t your fault – and it wasn’t your fault for not knowing.”

 

As she speaks, her voice grows stronger and stronger until she is yelling at him, truths that he can’t bring himself to face. She goes on, and on, and on, into details that he really had hoped she didn’t notice, and as she ends her tirade, she is sagged exhausted against his chest, occasionally hitting him with her ungloved hand. She goes on like this until she’s just muttering, “It isn’t your fault, it isn’t your  _fault_ ,” and eventually he just slings his arms over her and holds her close and tells her, gently, to shut up.

 

“You can’t just rationalize away Arit’s death, Aki,” he murmurs in her ear, and she stiffens and nods. “I’m going to ask Crow if we’re allowed to stay for a while. You need time. I need time. Najima needs time. We won’t get time if we’re stuck by ourselves. I guess that’s how I ended up like this. Too much time taking care of myself to really sit down and think out my issues.”

 

He is babbling, and he knows it,  but he hopes that she takes some comfort in plans and anecdotes like he does. 

 

Exhaustion that he has been holding off for two days finally crashes over him, and he gingerly lays out on the bedroll, tucking Aki close. She curls into his chest, shaking, and he sighs and presses a kiss against her head, pulling he r hair out of her face. “Go to sleep,” he mutters, punctuating with another ginger kiss. “I’m not gonna leave.”

 

Crow finds them like that the next morning, peeking into the tent in his curiosity – and trepidation to find Yusei maimed, or something to the like – curled around one another in a manner eerily reminiscent of a bonded pair of dragons. He smirks, and lets them rouse themselves.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More fluff. Yusei won't let Aki fall.

 

 

Aki still feels fragile, as if a hole in her heart is cracking and crumbling around the edges, hastily held together by strings of comforting words and condolences and Yusei. He won’t let her fall, probably couldn’t bear it if she were to lose herself in grief and loss over Arit. Arit herself would scold her and lick her head to toe with her sandpapery tongue if she let herself break over her death.

 

Time, Ruka says, is the best medicine. Aki seems to doubt her at first, but as weeks roll past, traveling with Yusei on Najima’s back amongst the Blackwings, she starts to find her peace. She can see Yusei’s concern every time he looks at her, and the pitying looks from the other riders, but it begins to hurt less and less and eventually, she can wake up in the morning without tears in her eyes that Yusei tenderly wipes away.

 

She fidgets with the harness leather between her hands, rubbing its familiar stitching. Yusei’s right arm is resting over her leg, bared to the sun. He has forsaken his coat in the heat, sleeves of his shirt tugged up around his elbows. In the bright light, her eyes trace over scars long healed over, ridge s in neat rows like fish gills that suggest intent behind the blade. She rubs one and feels him jump behind her, and she apologizes quietly and then asks, “What happened here?”

 

He eyeballs the scars briefly, and then chuckles. “Cockiness. And a bit of stubbornness.”

 

“That tells me nothing,” she says, elbowing him gently in the gut. He grumbles.

 

“I was in Valais, in the capital city there – Amerine, at the time. It’s since changed to Cassailes, there was a civil war, but anyways… at the time, there was a faction of political extremists that wanted information regarding Emperor Godwin’s dragon army, and they deemed it best to try and get information out of a member of that army. Unfortunately for them, I was just recently out of the academy and really didn’t know much, nor did I carry any rank at all, really. But they didn’t want to let me go. I managed to negotiate my own release on the grounds that I surpass their leader in the Trial of Blood.”

 

“I don’t even want to know what that is. What year was this?” Aki says, stricken by the archaicness of this story.

 

“Hm… I would have been eighteen, so… 1281?”

 

“…You do realize it’s 1505, right?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“That makes you 242 years old, Yusei.”

 

“Mhmm.”

 

“And the Cataclysm started in 1452… Emperor Godwin was still alive?”

 

“Yes. He was one of us, too. Just, the highest ranked of us all, I guess. The Cataclysm ended, on all records, in 1474.”

 

“The year I was born.”

 

Yusei chuckles. “Hatchling.”

 

“I’m thirty-one!”

 

“And I’m 242. Your point?”

 

She crosses her arms and pouts,  before she uncrosses them to rub at his scars again. “1452 to 1474… that’s twenty-two years.” 

 

Yusei stills and she twists her neck to look him in the eye. He does not meet her gaze, instead looking towards the horizon at their left. The wind tousles his hair into his eyes, forcing him to squeeze them shut.

 

“You fought a war for twenty-two years?”

 

He nods, very slowly. “The first twenty years weren’t so bad. Stand your guard at your assigned fortress. Report to your commander anything suspicious. Patrol the area. The Emperor received updates every other day or so from the Blackwings. It was just normal life, really. About once a month we had a spat with some Archfiend trying to get past, but it was manageable. Sad, but manageable. But then it all changed. They all suddenly lost it. It suddenly wasn’t just a problem of ‘everyone stationed in Tes’afin,’ it became ‘anyone could go crazy at any moment.’  Paranoia reigned supreme. A lot of people deserted.  The Emperor recalled all of us  that remained  to the palace. And then it really started. Every single day, for two years, I guarded Emperor Godwin against the crazed dragons. Najima and I faced hellfire and acid raining down on our shields and swords. We worked in shifts that grew longer and longer as time went on, as our numbers dwindled. It got to the point that we were barely sleeping  an hour or two a night if we were lucky. If you’ve ever thought you’ve seen Hell, then think again.” He takes on a haunted look, and she regrets bringing it up at all.

 

“It’s in the past,” he says suddenly, shaking himself. “There’s no point in dwelling on it.” His rushed dismissal jars her, and she blinks back tears.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says softly, and he laughs gruffly.

 

“You weren’t even born yet. It’s not your fault.”

 

“I think… my mother probably deserted,” she says softly. “Why else would she have had correspondence at our waypoint? And why else would she have survived if all the other Black Roses disappeared?”

 

He shrugs. “I never knew Setsuko, so I can’t say what kind of woman she was. I guess if she did desert, that’s her business. I’m not in the Emperor’s service anymore. No point in pursuing it.”

 

She is quiet for a few minutes before something occurs to her. “Hey, if you didn’t have any rank at all when you were 18, what did they call you?”

 

He laughs again, lighter than before. “They called me a cavalryman.”

 

“But you would have been about 170 by the time the Cataclysm started, officially. What was your rank then?”

 

“I was Second Commander Fudo. Ranks in the army went very slowly, since y’know, we live so damn long. Provided we’re not killed.”

 

“Second Commander… wow,” she murmurs. “Higher ranked than my mother was.”

 

“She may well have been younger than me. By the time the Cataclysm started, I was pretty much considered a senior citizen.”

 

“You still look like you’re only twenty.”

 

“I really don’t need to explain it all again, do I?”

 

She laughs, then. “No, no. But she did look older than you do now.”

 

“How so?”

 

“I don’t know _how_. Just, she was definitely older than you.”

 

Yusei’s brow furrows, and he lets go of her to dig through a saddlebag for something obviously buried deep. She herself has never seen the book that he pulls out of the very bottom of the bag. It is large and dusty and scorched, covered in a deep black leather and embossed on the cover with a short series of runes.

 

“What’s that?”

 

“A lexicon of all the riders in the Emperor’s service, circa 1300.”

 

“... _Why_ do you have that?”

 

“It was a gift from my mentor. I never really have read this thing. I just keep it, as a reminder.”

 

His arms encircle her as he drops it in front of her, and his intent is obvious. “Look for her in there. The Roses should be the third section.”

 

She lifts the cover gingerly, holding the fluttering parchment down with one hand. Three blank pages in, she comes across the emblem of the Star Legion. She traces the silvery paint reverently with one hand and then flips through what was easily a hundred pages of names. She spots Yusei’s name etched on one of the later pages, signifying his (at the time) lower rank. About half an inch away, on the same line, is a name in draconic characters, which she suspects is Najima’s name.

 

The next section is an emblem of flame, signifying Hell Legion. There are quite possibly more pages for this legion – closer to two hundred and fifty – and she struggles with the staggering number of names.

 

The third section, as promised, is the Rose Legion. She strokes the elegant flowers on its title page, before she flips to the next one.

 

She doesn’t have to search hard. Immediately at the top of the page are three names that she can read:

 

LORD GENERAL AKI’IZA

 

LORD COMMANDER SETSUKO

 

LORD COMMANDER MISTRAL

 

Her brow furrows. That can’t be correct – her mother hadn’t been very highly ranked. A  _lord commander_ was completely out of question.

 

Or so she’d been told.

 

Yusei peers over her shoulder and makes a soft noise. “That’s interesting. I thought you said she was lower than second commander?”

 

“That’s what she told me.”

 

“I guess she didn’t count on you meeting a guy with a book with her name in it.”

 

“I guess not,” Aki agrees. Her fingers stroke the draconic characters. “You taught me to speak it, but you never taught me much in terms of reading it. What do these say?”

 

He focuses on the characters. “The first one, next to the Lord General’s name, is ‘Allyr, Voiceless One.’ She and her rider are god-damned legends. The next, I think you can figure out - ‘Aritafae,  Protector.’ And the last one… ‘Cirriedu, Bringer of Death.’”

 

“Do all dragons have titles?”

 

Yusei nods. “Najima’s is ‘ Stormheart.’”

 

“He certainly flies like a storm.”

 

Yusei shakes with laughter. “You haven’t even truly flown.”

 

“Then show me,” Aki insists, and he stills.

 

“I don’t know if that’s a great idea,” he starts, and she shrugs.

 

“I trust you not to let me fall.”

 

Yusei still looks uncertain. “I don’t know if I trust _myself,_ Aki.”

 

She grabs his hand and squeezes it. “I trust you. Let’s do this.”

 

He starts to fidget with the harness straps, adjusting them to sit higher around their waists. “I want you to wrap these around your wrists once and hold on tight,” he says, handing her the shorter loop. She does as he instructs. “Oh, and you might want to close your eyes.”

 

She doesn’t have time to ask any questions, and he does not say anything further. She suspects that he has been bolstered by her confidence, but that confidence may be fleeting. He calls something to Najima, a sound she’s never heard him produce before – strangely draconic, but softened by his humanity. Najima’s response is immediate, and she lets out a little shriek despite herself.

 

She has certainly _seen_ Najima and Yusei fly like this, but she never imagined how it would actually feel. Adrenaline coils through her blood as the world turns on its axis. Yusei’s arms are on either side of her, and they are crouched low against Najima’s neck. 

 

She doesn’t, however, close her eyes as Yusei suggested. She watches the world whip past. Najima hardly makes a sound, so different from the standard, steady  _ thump  _ of dragon’s wings on air. Rider and dragon alike are tuned into some other mode, something that is silent and streamlined and  _ ungodly  _ fast. 

 

She realizes vaguely that Najima has taken a dive from the air down one of the valleys, and she does hear when the wind starts to whistle and snap against his wings as he banks hard, but to her shock, he doesn’t slow at all. Instead, they gain altitude once again, and her ears pop as he climbs.

 

_ This  _ is why he was named Stormheart. 

 

She can imagine the etchings of dragon riders that she had seen in her childhood, her mother pointing with an elegant finger at each of them and giving a name.  _ This one is Aki’iza, of Rose Legion, and her dragon Allyr. This is Greiger, of Hell Legion, and his dragon Dollonyss.  _ A silver knight is absorbed by the next two pages.  _ This is  _ _ Rutger of Star Legion. And this is his dragon, Xulyr. _ She imagines Yusei in that same silver armor, perched proudly upon Najima.

 

H e wears leather and carries the weight of the world upon his shoulders. His sword is still made of silver, though, and here in the sky, he is at home, and she can feel it in every flex of his muscles. 

 

Najima slows once again, rejoining the dark cloud of Blackwings, and Yusei straightens cautiously. “I don’t think you’d be able to hold on much longer,” he says, breathless, and she nods. She has no words.

 

He laughs again, and she nearly jumps at the sound. “It was like this for me the first few times too,” and she is glad to see him remembering something about his past with happiness rather than bitterness. “The hardest thing to get used to, I think, is trusting that the dragon knows what to do.”

 

“It’s hard to put your trust into someone else. Especially when you’re a few thousand feet in the air.” She looks at him again, having to twist her neck awkwardly to meet his eyes. “I _do_ trust you, Yusei Fudo. You’ve proven yourself over and over again to be worthy of my trust.”

 

He does not speak, as is habitual for him when flustered or startled or tired. This she knows. He instead chooses to express his acceptance through gestures, and today decides that gesture shall be tucking her a bit closer, his scarred arm around her waist.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei and Aki make a new plan.

 

 

 

“We need to make a plan,” Aki announces without warning at the campfire she is sharing with Yusei and Crow. The two look at her, confusion creasing their brows.

 

“For the Earthbound Immortals. We can’t just let them ravage the world.”

 

“Do you have any ideas on how we can handle a _god_?” Yusei says. His voice isn’t vicious, or angry – merely curious. She blinks slowly.

 

“I have a feeling. Yusei, you told me the story of the Crimson Dragon and the Earthbound God. Is there a place in this world where the Crimson Dragon is worshiped? Said to have lived? Reportedly spotted?”

 

Yusei is very quiet. “It was rumoured at the palace that there were ruins beneath the whole structure, even below the dungeons and catacombs. I...don’t know where you’re going with this.”

 

“Can I ask you to trust me?”

 

Yusei thinks back to when she put her trust in him, to keep her from falling, and sighs. “I really, really don’t want to go back to that palace.” She looks briefly crestfallen until he continues. “But, I’m going to trust you. Besides, you’ll need a ride,” he quips, jabbing a thumb at Najima. The Stardust Dragon looks up at the mention of his name, and then lays his head back down with a grumble when he realizes he has been delegated to ‘taxi,’ and Aki giggles a little.

 

Crow all but throws a fit over this. “I really, really don’t think that’s a good idea. You remember what happened  _ last time  _ you two went traipsing off into the unknown, right?” He cringes at Aki’s flinch, and Yusei gives him a reprimanding glare, but he continues. “Nobody has been in that palace for fifty years, Yus’! You have no idea what kind of monsters could have taken up in there. Not to mention bandits and looters that saw a huge empty palace and thought ‘ _ hm, that looks like a good place to shack up!’” _

 

Yusei sighs exasperatedly. “Crow, we’ll be fine. The palace is in the middle of a city – if there were any monsters in there, that city would not still be there.”

 

“You can’t _know_ that, Yusei!”

 

“You’re right, I can’t. But I can surmise that the _chances_ of there being an _Earthbound Immortal_ in a _capitol city_ is pretty damn low.”

 

“If the city wasn’t completely forsaken in the Cataclysm, then you don’t know what kind of things could have moved in without any of them giving a fuck,” Crow snaps, but he is losing this argument, and he can see it. Snarling, he stands and paces a few feet away before he sweeps into his tent. Yusei looks at Aki and shrugs before returning his attention to his food, but he doesn’t get far before Crow re-emerges and thrusts something out towards him.

 

Yusei’s face is practically a question mark. Crow grumbles something about Yusei being obtuse, before he sits down, so close that his knees brush Yusei’s, and draws from the tooled leather case an elegant black composite bow, the likes of which Aki has never seen. Its craftsmanship is gorgeous – a relic from a lost time of art and elegance. It is placed in Yusei’s hands, and he holds it almost reverently.

 

“Why are you showing me this?”

 

“I’m not showing you. I’m giving it to you. You Stars never had the best bows.”

 

“Crow… this is _your_ bow, from your time in the Legion.”

 

“Yeah, so? I’m not in the Legion anymore. I quite literally have not touched that thing since before the Cataclysm started.”

 

Aki’s eyes are wide as saucers as she touches the nearly black wood. It is still gleaming and smooth, well-oiled and dustless. “It doesn’t look like it hasn’t been touched for fifty years.”

 

“The only weapons assigned to Blackwings were these bows. We didn’t futz around with swords and daggers like you lot. Our whole schtick was speed and death from above.”

 

“What’s it made of?” 

 

Crow laughs dryly. “Never really found out. But that wood is some enchanted shit, and the string is made of woven mythril. That thing isn’t gonna break or age for another few hundred years, at  _ least _ .” He turns to Yusei again. “I’m giving this to you because I trust it more than those metal twigs you came to call bows.” Yusei looks a little offended on his bow’s behalf, but doesn’t argue. “I’m not gonna send you out in the world defenseless.”

 

“We’re hardly _defenseless,_ ” Yusei mutters, but his look of gratitude far outweighs the look of annoyance that touches his eyes like a ghost. Yusei carefully slides the bow back into its case and sets it on the ground.

 

“Oh, and Aki,” Crow blurts suddenly, as if just remembering she was there. “I’ve been doing some inquiring, and since it’s on the way, you might as well… I found a lead on where Setsuko hid her blades. You’re gonna wanna stop in Sen-suon and talk to the barkeep, Saiga. He’ll point you in the right direction.”

 

Aki blinks openly for a moment before she launches herself at Crow, catching the man completely off-guard in a hug. He pats her awkwardly on the back, looking to Yusei for help, but relaxes when she releases him and gushes ‘thank you’ and ‘I can’t believe you went through the trouble for me,’ and he smiles lopsidedly at her, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“It wasn’t a huge issue, Aki. Part of my living to find things out.”

 

She wipes at her face, sniffling, and beams back. “It’s not nothing, though. You found a piece of my mom for me. _Thank you_.”

 

 


End file.
